


Profit Margin and Depreciation

by taffysamg



Category: Kpop - Fandom, WAYV, wayzenni
Genre: Concert, Crime, Crime AU, Criminal AU, F/M, Human Trafficking, Kpop fanfic, Kpop fanfiction - Freeform, Mafia AU, Other, Tour, criminal, kpop, kpop x reader, mafia, wayv fanfic, wayv fanfiction, wayv x reader
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-17
Updated: 2020-10-08
Packaged: 2021-03-07 19:14:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 34
Words: 44,558
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26512753
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/taffysamg/pseuds/taffysamg
Summary: As such a big fan of the band WayV, you were ecstatic when you finally managed to get a ticket to their latest concert! The show is fantastic, but you're exhausted once it's all over. Before you head home, you stop in the venue's public bathroom- at least, that's the last place you remember stopping... Now you've found yourself in a much more dangerous situation than you ever signed up for...
Relationships: Hendery/Reader, Kun/reader, Lucas/Reader, Ten/Reader, WinWin/Reader, Xiaojun/Reader, YangYang/Reader
Comments: 5
Kudos: 35





	1. The Stage is Set

"Yeahhhhh!" Y/N was screaming along with the hundreds, if not thousands of people on the ground floor of the arena. The lights were glaring and the heat of the bodies around her was pressing in, but the adrenaline rush was more than enough to keep her jumping with energy. Watching her idols in front of her, it was like a dream come true. 

It had taken her ages to come across the opportunity to come to this show. Originally, they weren't even planning on playing in her city. She tried to find a way to afford both concert and plane tickets, but the journey was too much hassle. Devastated, she had come to terms with her lot. That is, until they released an updated concert schedule. They would be so close, she could practically walk to the arena if she tried hard enough!

Ecstatic, she had pulled together the money to attend in general admissions almost immediately. Lighstick and a small backpack in hand, she walked in as prepared as a fan could be for an event. She was there nearly a full day in advance, more than willing to wait in rain or shine. The people she met in line seemed to feel the same way, antsy to get into the building. Now, her ears were ringing, the floor was vibrating beneath her, and she couldn't be more excited. 

WayV. By no means were they the most popular group, but that didn't matter to her. She knew every one of their songs, learning every lyric she could, no matter the language. She was happy no matter what photocard she got, thankful for whatever albums she could get her hands on. Although the group was fairly new, she started to learn the members' personalities, both from recent content online as well as old clips from other groups they had participated in. 

As the last song came to a close, her eyes were almost watering, whether from physical stress, sadness that it was almost over, or the sheer joy she felt in seeing her idols on the stage, sweating in the heat of the glaring spotlights. Kun, Lucas, Ten, Xiaojun, WinWin, Hendery, YangYang- they were all such beautiful, wonderful people. And she was here, right in front of them! Every time one of them even so much as looked her way, she felt as though she was going to faint. 

"Thank you everyone!" Kun said as one of his bandmates handed him an old-school microphone. "Have a good night!" The crowd went wild as they waved, lights dimming. She could just barely make out their silhouettes leaving the stage as the house lights rose and exiting directions began blaring over the sound system. 

Heart still beating wildly, skin shiny with sweat, lungs gasping for air, and enough adrenaline to run a marathon, Y/N began to follow the masses out the side exits into the gaping corridors of the arena. Having been vacant for the several hours in which the concert was happening, the air was chilly, a stark contrast from the floor. Her muscles began to react to the cold, making her realize just how tired her body was. Feeling the effects of over two hours of nonstop fangirling, she looked up to the directional signs in search of a bathroom. 

Sure enough, the closest one wasn't more than a few exits away. Following the arrows, she came to a door marked with a woman, tucked into a corner behind a cinderblock wall. Assumedly, the men's restroom was on the other side. Surprisingly, even after such a long show, she didn't see any line. Maybe there was a more obvious restroom on the way to the main exit? Regardless, she was thankful for it. Despite having just spent all that time crushed up against strangers, she wasn't really an extrovert. The opportunity to have a moment of alone time before starting her trip home was a welcome one. 

She took her time in the bathroom, sitting in the stall for a minute scrolling through her phone. At least, she thought it was a minute. It was only when the silence started to get to her that she got up, recomposing herself and exiting. Walking up to the bathroom counter, she glanced into the mirror. 

Her makeup was less than stellar, and a thin layer of sweat still graced her face. Her hair was a disaster, as was to be expected post-concert. Laughing to herself, she looked into her own eyes. Imagine if the band members saw her like this? Instinctively, she turned around, but obviously no one was there. This was the women's bathroom, after all. Plus, she had nothing to worry about. She couldn't really afford any insanely expensive meet-and-greets or fansigns, so she would have to settle for as close as she had gotten today. At least she had plenty of videos on her phone, no mater how shaky. 

Washing her hands, she splashed water into her face, cooling her off and getting rid of a bit of the salt that still lingered. She couldn't wait to get home and take a shower. Her feet were beginning to ache from the weight of her body, overworked from the show. Adjusting her clothing, she made sure her bag was secure, looking around for the paper towels. She saw the dispenser, but- it was empty. 

Grossed out by the idea of drying her hands on her sweaty pants, she considered just shaking them off, but the dampness remained. Going back into the stalls to grab toilet paper would practically defeat the purpose of washing her hands to begin with. Sighing, she just decided that she would have to deal with it. She had been in the bathroom for far too long anyway- if she lingered, she may end up getting locked inside the arena!

Putting her hand under her shirt to open the doorhandle, she reached out tiredly. At that moment, her vision went black. Surprised and scared, she realized that it was because something was over her face, dragging her backwards as she tried to regain her footing on the grungy tiles. 

"Hey! What the fuck!" She started yelling. "Don't fucking mess with me, I have a pepper spray in my-" She started to say, before another weight clenched on her mouth. Feeling something leathery slide across her tongue, she bit down in a panic, causing the thing to retract. 

"Fuck! The stupid bitch bit me!" She heard a male voice say. 

"Suck it up, you have gloves on. Now knock her out and let's move!" A second said. Knock her out? Eyes widening under the covering, she took in a deep breath to screech. Rather than oxygen, though, her lungs were quickly filled with a different gas. It smelled sort of like chlorine, and left a sickly-sweet taste in her mouth. Against her will, she felt her eyelids growing heavy. She had been drugged. 

She felt her knees fall out from under her as she sank to the ground, unable to do anything...


	2. Wolf in Sheep's Clothing

Y/N woke up in a panic. It took her a few moments to realize what was going on. The last thing she remembered was getting blindfolded and grabbed by some strange group of people- at least two men, if she recalled correctly. The taste of the drug was still stale on her tongue, matched only by whatever cloth was tied around her face to force her teeth apart. How long had she been out? Where was she now? She couldn't see a thing- was she still blindfolded?

Trying to reach her hands up to clear her face, she realized that she was tied to something. Her arms were at an uncomfortable angle to the sides, slightly skewn back. Her legs were in a similar predicament, each tied to the leg of what she could only assume was a chair. She struggled for a moment against the restraints, but quickly realized that they weren't anywhere near coming off. Whoever had tied her up must have been good at it. 

"Ohh, I think the little lady is waking up!" Someone said, sending a shiver up her spine. There were other people here? Were these the men who had assaulted her? How long had they been watching? She wanted to ask who was there, but the binding in her mouth was keeping her from doing so. 

She had known the risks of human trafficking in areas like this one, especially at large events and venues, but she had never really thought it would happen to her. After all, she was too old to be a child, and she wasn't really all that interesting of a person. Although it was partially her own fault for walking around on her own... Her heart was pounding and her breathing was labored. She was practically going into shock. It didn't help when a blinding light filled her gaze- the covering had been taken off her head. 

It took more than a moment for her eyes to adjust. As it turned out, the room she was in wasn't bright. It was simply a white ring light that was aimed directly at her face. The little bit of the walls that she could see were dark and dirty, potentially cinderblock or concrete. While she could see a few silhouettes, the light was keeping her from noticing any distinct features. 

"Wow, not bad." The voice that had spoken before piped up again. "The mascara tracks really make the look." Mascara... she hadn't even realized she had been crying until he said that. Her makeup must have been running if he noticed. 

"Stop messing around. We need to check her details and get her out." A second voice. Was this the other man who had kidnapped her?

"What's your name, sweetheart?" She tried to make a noise in response. It wasn't an answer to his question, though, but rather an attempt at a scream. Of course, not much made it through. "Oh! Right, I forgot. Silly me!" A hand came into the light, reaching towards her face. It was clearly a leaner man, wearing a dark blue blazer- a suit, maybe? Regardless, she didn't want him touching her. She attempted to lean away as he reached for her gag. 

"Now, now, don't be like that." This man who kept speaking- the most talkative out of the two- he seemed... familiar. Something about the pitch resonated with her, but the tone was different. With nowhere to run, she eventually ran out of room to lean, leaving her still enough that he could rip it off of her face. Gasping for air, she felt the saliva that had gathered in the corners of her mouth slide down her chin. Well, she must have looked like a regular disaster. 

"Alright, let's try this again." 

"What's your name?" The second man said, surprising her slightly. She hadn't expected him to be concerned. 

"Come on, hun, we don't have all day." The first said again. 

"Y-Y/N..." She responded shakily. 

"Ah, Y/N..." The man continued. "You see, we're in a bit of a bind. We were supposed to get more than a few little pretties to take with us tonight. Unfortunately, you took so fucking long cleaning yourself up that you actually put us way off schedule. That could put us out a lot of money." 

"M-money?" 

"Yeah, I'd say we make anywhere between twenty to fifty thousand a person. Especially with pretty young girls always coming to our concerts and all." Our... our concerts? Were these people working with WayV? So this wasn't just an isolated incident or a planned target- they moved with the band? Did the managers know? Were the members in danger? Why would-

"Anyway, if we only come home with one, Kun is gonna be disappointed." She froze. Her heartbeat stopped, breath stilled, eyes stopped darting around for a second. What... what? 

"Careful, you'll send her into shock." Another voice laughed. It was less crazy than the first voice, but not as calm as the second. Another man? Her stomach dropped as she started to realize why these voices sounded so familiar. No, that couldn't be right. It couldn't. The logistics just didn't work. They had mentioned Kun's name to mess with her- that was it. 

"No..." She said out loud as she thought through it. It couldn't be true. It. Wasn't. True.

"Aww, look, she's sad that her heroes have her tied up in a basement!" The first one laughed. "Honestly, I'd think most fans were into this kind of thing! What with all the creepy shit you post on Twitter..." Looking to the voice with the snap of her head, she tried to catch a good luck. Surely, there would be some strange, fifty year old man back there, right? 

"She still doesn't believe us." The third said, a hint of amusement in his voice. Then, in one swift motion, the ring light turned so that it was facing up, pointed directly underneath a man's face, much like a child telling a ghost story. 

"Boo!" She involuntarily yelped at the sudden sight, sending the boy into a fit of laughter. The lighting was strange, but... The shape of his jawline, the curvature of his lips, the slender nature of his face- it was unmistakable. 

Hendery. 

The same Hendery who had been on stage in front of her not long ago. 

The one who had beamed out over the audience with an innocent smile. Was he looking for victims even then? And how many of the members were involved? He had already mentioned Kun, but which ones were in the room with her now? 

"See, normally I'd let Xiaojun handle these matters." Now Xiaojun was involved as well? "But I just had to see the little brat that cost us our haul, hm?" He reoriented the light, stepping completely into it so that he was fully in view. He was in a different outfit than he had been wearing on stage- it was more discreet. 

"I can't wait to make up for that with all the fun we're going to have before we sell you." 

"Forget it, stop playing with her. We should move out while we're not on a time crunch." 

"M-move?" She asked, immediately regretting bringing any sort of attention to herself. Still, she was confused. Hadn't they moved her here to begin with?

"Yeah, sweetheart, move. See, we're underneath the arena right now- not that you can tell with this light in your face. We can't just have you touring with us, now can we? So, we're gonna take you home. Obviously you're not allowed on the bus, so we'll have Xiaojun and YangYang escort you in an auxiliary vehicle. I'm sure you understand- cargo, and all." Kneeling down on one leg, he reached for the strap binding her right wrist. 

"Are you sure that's-" The quieter man started to say from the dark. Before he had even finished, Y/N had done what he was warning against simply out of instinct- she slapped Hendery in the face. Head tilted awkwardly, he glared back up at her. 

"You wanna play those games? That's fine, we'll just knock you out again. Can't promise you'll make it out in such good shape, this time, though." Eyes widening, she shook her head. 

"N-no, no, it was an accident- I-it won't happen again, I promise, I-" 

"Really, now?" He stood back up, grabbing her jaw and making eye contact with her. "Can I get an apology, then?" 

"S... s-" 

"I'm waiting." His grip tightened painfully. 

"I'm sorry." 

"For?" 

"H-hitting you." 

"Good." He let go. "What kind of reputation would I have if I let some bitch bat me around, huh?" He began undoing the rest of her restraints. He was nothing like the Hendery she knew. This man was insane- and who else knew? Were their managers even aware? Why do all of this for money when they were clearly already loaded? 

What was going to happen to her?


	3. Charge

Once they were sure she wasn't planning on acting up, Hendery personally grabbed her wrist to escort her to the car. Even if she wanted to escape, he had an iron grip, and the men to back him. She hadn't been able to see who else was with him, as they had waited until she was in front to follow, but she could only assume that it was Xiaojun and YangYang as her captor had previously stated. 

They led her up several flights of concrete stairs, exposing her to more and more light. Once she was finally at the top, she found that they were indeed still inside the arena. The only lights still on were the emergency lights. He led her through one of the audience entrances to the ground floor, bringing her to a spot that she hadn't been too long ago. Passing it, they went through a door near the bottom of the stage into the back area, clearly where the dressing rooms had been. 

Shuddering, she looked at it all, passing by to get to the back door. She would have given anything to be here mere hours ago, and now she was scared out of her mind. 

"Save it," Hendery teased as he felt her shake. "You haven't seen anything yet." Now what was that supposed to mean? It was already messing with her head that these were her idols, the people she had looked up too. Not only that, but she had been so tired after the show that it was weighing on her. Wait, tired... That's it, she must have fallen asleep in the bathroom and started dreaming, or hallucinating, or something. She just had to snap out of it. Suddenly, the wind was knocked out of her as she was shoved towards a door. 

She hadn't realized it as she was so deep in thought, but they had made it to a sketchy-looking black car. Pushing her towards the opening, Hendery began speaking again. 

"Get in, Xiaojun will sit on the other side. You stay in the middle." She didn't move. "What's the problem." 

"I..." 

"I, what, honey? Speak up." 

"I don't want to." This caused all three of them to laugh. 

"Hear that? She doesn't want to." The third man snickered as Hendery tightened his grip on her wrist. 

"Tough luck, sweetheart." He said, picking her up by the hip and practically throwing her into the car. As he slammed the door behind her, she heard him say in a muffled tone, "I will say, this is much more fun with just one." Looking around frantically, she tried to get a bearing on her surroundings. The entire inside of the car was black as well. There was a man sitting in the driver's seat who seemed older, wearing a black suit and shades. He was clearly just an employee of the band. 

She heard the doors open on either side of her, causing her to yelp. 

"None of that." The man to her left said as he got in. "If you start screaming, we'll have to gag you again." Looking over with a snap of her head, she realized that it was indeed YangYang. Although his expression was tired and his clothes were grungy, it was undoubtedly him. In a similar fashion, she looked over the man to her right- Xiaojun. He nodded in greeting. 

"Hey." Hey? Fucking hey?! This was insane! What was happening? She couldn't exactly use anything she had planned to say should she have met any of these people. Hey! Nice to meet you, I'm a big fan. Thanks for kidnapping me! Not exactly the most optimal of conversations. YangYang hit the back of the driver's seat, saying, 

"We're good to go, follow the bus." As they pulled out, she realized they were in a small parking deck, the white and yellow lights glaring on the windshield. It was clearly nighttime, which made sense giving the time of the concert. Still, she didn't know how long she had been out, nor what time it was. They pulled out onto a dark street, a familiar sight from when she arrived. 

"Don't bother." Xiaojun said, noticing as she tried to remember where they were headed. "It's gonna be a long ride." The second she stopped trying to figure out escape routes, she slouched back into her seat, defeated. She was going wherever they ere taking her, now. Would anyone notice? Or give a shit? Would they look for her? 

She was growing tired very quickly. She wasn't sure what the effects of the drugs she had been given were, but sleep certainly wasn't one of them. She felt like she had been awake for a millennia. Her eyelids dropped like weights as the car began moving. She couldn't fall asleep- she had to remember. On the off chance that she was able to escape, she could maybe follow some memorable landmarks. They were leaving from a familiar city, after all. 

She wasn't given the choice. It was mere minutes before she fell asleep. Her dreams were turbulent, but surprisingly she didn't see a single face of the band within them. She later figured that it was a subconscious sort of stress. She saw flashing lights and felt shaking all around her. Suddenly, she felt very hot, like her blood was boiling, the steam trying to escape from beneath her skin. She opened her mouth to scream, but instead it felt as though thousands of diamonds were pouring out of her throat. 

Awaking in a cold sweat, she felt a hand on her shoulder as she jumped. Looking to the source, she noticed that it was Xiaojun attempting to wake her, abruptly pulling her from her hellish nightmare. 

"Sorry to startle you. We've arrived." Arrived... arrived where?

"Come on, we don't have all day." YangYang prompted, getting out. The driver was nowhere to be found. Had he left the car while she was still asleep? If so, he must be quick- or she was slow. The man shut the door behind him, leaving the one who woke her to lead her out of the vehicle. 

They were in a surprisingly well lit area, ceiling coated in LED's. Still, the surroundings were still unsettlingly bare, made up of a slightly dirty concrete. It felt like some kind of warehouse considering the materials as well as the size, along with the big, rusted metal door she was being led to. She glanced around, trying to see if there were any clear exits. 

"Don't try it." Xiaojun muttered. How was he so good at telling what she was thinking? Well, whether it was a truth or a scare tactic, she was more than convinced enough to keep in line. His grip was strong, anyway, she doubted she could twist her way free, especially if h was expecting it. 

They walked through the door, into a tiled hallway. It was even chillier than the concrete parking area, but the lighting was just as harsh to her eyes. They made more turns than she could count, winding down hallways and through big doors, passing smaller ones on her left and right. She could have even swore they traversed the same hallways multiple times. Were they trying to disorient her?

Finally, they came to the end of a hallway with an average sized, dirty black door. While it seemed similar to many of the ones around her, it felt different... This was where they were headed. 

"Did you make sure he knows we're here?" Xiaojun asked, clearly not speaking to her. 

"Yeah, and Hendery probably doubled up just in case. He's not out today, it should be fine." Knocking lightly, YangYang reached for the handle, swinging it open. What she saw inside was a surprisingly well-furnished room, much like a conference room at an office building. There was a large, dark, wooden table in the center, surrounded by a variety of mismatched office chairs. At the head of the table, a man sat with stacks of papers strewn out in front of him, clearly overlooking them with quite a bit of focus. 

"Kun. Here's the girl." The man looked up, and Y/N could see that it was indeed the band leader. His face was not nearly as young as it looked on stage. As far as she knew, he was in his mid twenties... so why did he look so... tired? Standing up, he walked to where they were stationed right inside the doorframe. Looking her over, he directed Xiaojun to turn her slightly in a few different directions. 

"What's her name?" 

"Y/N..." she responded quietly. Looking down, his stare was withering. She immediately shifted her gaze down to the floor in response. 

"I didn't ask you." Shit. "She has a mouth on her. Remind me why there's only one?" 

"Hendery got held up." YangYang cut in, knowing that Xiaojun would try and have the two of them take responsibility. "She's younger, though, not bad looking, she should be one of our higher sellers. We have plenty of shows left, as well." 

"Hm. I suppose." Kun said. "Alright, I'll speak with everyone about the plan. Send her to Lucas."


	4. Doubled

They walked out of the room Kun was in rather hastily. Judging based on her quick assessment of the room, it wasn't his office, but rather a conference room. Did he just happen to be there? Or did he not want her in his own personal space? Speaking of which, was this a permanent location, or just a transitional one between shows? How many girls had seen this place? And more importantly- how many had been able to tell the tale? As they were still functioning... she didn't know if she wanted the answer to that.

As Xiaojun and YangYang led her out, she began to get confused. If Kun was in charge both with the stage and this underground operation, why was she being moved? And did they say to Lucas? What did he have to do with this? Were they all involved? It was becoming all too apparent that this was a full-band thing happening. 

"W-wait, where are you taking me?" She asked, trying to keep her voice steady. It was fairly ineffective. 

"Can't you hear?" YangYang asked, poking the side of her head with his free hand. "To Lucas." 

"Why?" 

"None of your business." Leading her down the same hallways as before, the LED's bored into her skull. She was incredibly thirsty, as she hadn't eaten or drank anything since her arrival. She doubted saying anything about it would help. Soon, they arrived at a steely pair of doors. They slid open smoothly, revealing a tiny area- it was an elevator. 

Shoving her in with no explanation, they let the doors close behind. YangYang loosened his grip momentarily, moving to grab something from his pocket. As he did such, she managed to wrench one of her hands free from the clutches of her kidnappers. Turning sharply to look at her, he moved forward as if to attack her. 

"Wait." Xiaojun's voice cut the silence. Looking up, both of the others were confused. "Would you prefer to walk on your own?" Both were now looking at her. She glanced back and forth between the two of them. 

"Well... yeah." 

"You understand that if you run, we'll catch you. And it will be five times as bad." She nodded, swallowing involuntarily. YangYang shrugged. 

"Whatever, makes my hands less sweaty." He pulled the object from his pocket. A white card. Holding it up to a clean silver panel in the elevator, it opened up, revealing unlabeled buttons. Pressing a few, the elevator began to move downward, startling her. 

It took longer than a normal elevator to descend- or maybe she was just nervous. Either that, or this place went deeper than she had ever expected. There were no windows or glass accents on the elevator, so she couldn't tell how many floors they were passing. It didn't feel like a slow movement, though. Finally, it shuddered to a halt, the doors sliding open a second time with a smooth noise. 

This hallway was different than the first, in that it was much more creepy and gross. A lot like the parking deck, it was made up of some form of concrete or stone, and the halls were lined with rusty metal doors. As they started walking down it, it got worse. Rather than doors, the openings were covered with bars- these were cells. Jail cells. 

In the same place that the conference room had been on the upper floor, there was another black door. She could only assume that this was where Lucas was residing. She prepared for the worst as Xiaojun reached to open it. Would he be waiting with torture, or tethers? Would he imprison her in this disgusting basement? Maybe he would just be creepily waiting in the dark. She wanted to shut her eyes as it swung, revealing...

Well, Lucas was in the room, but other than that, it was nothing like she had imagined. She hadn't even seen him at first, as he was facing the flatscreen TV on the side wall. He was seated on a beanbag, practically eaten up with how far he was sunk into it. He had an Xbox controller in his right hand, trying to keep up with his video game as he reached for a soda can on the ground near him. The rest of the room pretty much matched, including a bed and a table, with some clothes and trash littered around. 

"Lucas." The boy looked over, but then back to his TV, repeating the movement a few times as he attempted to play and talk. 

"Oh! Hold on, hold on-" He took a sip of his drink, pressed a few more buttons, and finally put the game on pause. Hauling himself up out of the chair, he stretched his arms up. He was taller than she had remembered. Finally finishing his little routine, he looked them over, hands on his hips. 

"Who's this?" 

"Tonight's haul." YangYang clarified. 

"Oh? Just the one?" Xiaojun nodded, staying relatively quiet. "Huh. Well, you'll be a lot of fun, then." He smiled, looking to the other men. "Well, I've got it from here!" 

"You don't wanna... lock her up or something?" Xiaojun asked, a little bit confused. 

"Well, I mean, yeah. I figured if there's only one, I've got plenty of time, but sure, if that's what you want." He walked to the back half of the room, opening a drawer and rummaging in it for just a moment. As she heard the scraping of metal and wood, he pulled out a set of jingling keys. "Got 'em!" 

Pushing past them, he walked out into the hall, picking the cell closest to the door on the right. He fumbled with the lock, as if he wasn't used to doing it. Finally, though, the key slid in, easily opening the gate. Gesturing to the inside like a welcoming to a dinner party, he looked at her expectantly. 

"You really expect me to get in there?" She asked incredulously. He laughed, shaking his head. 

"I mean, it's that or we put you in!" There weren't many options. She reluctantly stepped in, wincing as the gate clanged behind her. Turning around, she watched as Lucas faced them again. 

"Happy?" They seemed satisfied, exchanging a few small goodbyes after whispers of some future schedule. As they walked back towards the elevator, Lucas retreated into his room. She took a moment to look around her cell. 

It was awful. There was a wooden board chained to the wall, assumedly able to fold out into a place to sit or lay down. There seemed to be some semblance of straw or grass on the floor, as well as a singular blanket, although obviously old. It reeked of scents that she feared she would be able to recognize if she put too much though into it, and there were no windows. 

Legs practically shaking, she sat against the wall, drawing her knees to her chest as a means of both warming herself up and coping. She was finally in a position to let the tears fall from her face, and she didn't waste a second doing so. She didn't like feeling so weak, but she couldn't really help it. This was more than she had ever signed up for. All she wanted to do was see a concert. 

"Hey!" Her gaze shot up as she heard his voice. Looking to the gate, she saw Lucas leaning on the bars, trying to get her attention. How had she not noticed him come back out? "Sorry! I had to make sure they were gone. What's your name?" 

"My..." 

"Yeah?" 

"Y/N." 

"Cool, cool. I'm Lucas!" 

"I... know." 

"Oh, right, haha! I always forget, we get you guys from the shows. Glad you're a fan!" Was... was he kidding? She said nothing, salt stinging her face. "So, uh," he continued, obviously trying to keep the conversation going. "Do you wanna come in?" 

"Excuse me?" 

"I mean, they think I'm all tough and mean on you guys, but honestly I'm kind of bored. Normally I can't hang out with you because I don't want you guys to think I pick favorites, but since you're all alone, you can come like, play video games or something!" 

"I... what?" 

"Yeah, I mean, I have Call of Duty, Destiny, uh, I can probably find my Minecraft account? So?" ...What the hell?


	5. Preparation

"Aw, shit, again?" Lucas laughed as he fell back into his seat, throwing the controller to the side. "How do you keep winning? I thought you said you didn't have an Xbox!" 

"I don't!" She insisted, eyes moving from the winning screen notification for Player 2. "You just majorly suck!" 

"Hey, I thought you were a fan! How are you gonna just bully me like that?" She was laughing along with him, stomach starting to ache from the convulsions. 

"You're practically asking for it." She never would have imagined ganging out with Lucas before this but... he was actually kind of fun. Although not nearly as smooth as she expected, he was pretty down to Earth. As she thought about this, though, she was distracted. Over the door, a red light flickered on. As she let her laughter die out, she mentioned it offhandedly. 

"Hey, uh, what does that light do?" 

"Hmm?" He looked to the door where she was gesturing. "That's... oh, fuck!" He jumped up, grabbing something off of the counter. 

"Wait, what? What is it?" She started to ask. Panicking, he grabbed her wrists, yanking her up out of the beanbag, and dragging her over to the table. "What the fuck! What are you-" He showed no signs of pausing as he shoved her against a table, the corner ramming into her abdomen with a sharp sting. Folding a bit, she put her elbows down on the surface to stabilize herself. At this point, she felt a blade to her throat and the angles of his body on her back. Lucas was threatening her with a knife. 

"What? What's going on?" She asked, tears already starting to form at the corners of her eyes. She was launched back into reality. Lucas was not her friend. He was not here to hang out with her. He was not here to be all wonderful and amazing like she had hoped. He was part of a human trafficking ring, and he would be selling her off in a matter of days, if not hours. 

"I rigged that light up to tell me when the elevator is opening. How long has it-" Just as fast as he had started to explain, the door to his room shot open, flooding it with the unsettling light of the hallway. In the frame, she could just barely make out a thin framed silhouette, blurred by tears. 

"Lucas. What is she doing out of her cell?" It demanded in a sickeningly familiar tone. Hendery. 

"Aww, you know," Lucas said in a voice that had to be at least five times deeper than when they were playing just moments before. "I was all lonely, and she looked so pretty." He snickered in a cliche-evil-villain type of way. Pressing the knife even further into her throat and his knee to her leg, he whispered, "Thought I'd have a little fun with her, you know?" 

Hendery looked on, curious. Tears were now generously rolling down her face, and if she was lucky, her eyes were still red from all the crying earlier. Her hair was obviously a mess and she was sweating profusely. it seemed like a believable story. 

"Hmm, understandable. Well, Kun wants her upstairs, we have a client. With only one option he'd better like the selection, so don't rough her up too much. Have her put on one of the stock dresses- maybe the blue one I like?" Glancing over her, he laughed. "On second thought, might be a little small for you, doll." Turning around, she heard his footsteps begin to head off without closing the door behind him. 

"Chop chop! Can't keep them waiting!" His laughter faded with his presence. As soon as he was sure Hendery was gone, Lucas pulled back. 

"I'm so sorry, Y/N! I just- I can't- look, this job means a lot to everyone, and it's better if I don't cause problems." Given her free space, her hands gripped her upper arms, crossing them in a position she naturally took up for safety. She didn't say anything. 

"I, uh..." He continued. "Anyway, I should probably get you changed. And I think there's a brush in the bathroom." He pointed. "You should start washing up, I'll bring in the clothes." She stood still for a moment, but finally moved towards the bathroom. Shutting the door behind her, she looked around. Aside from the hygiene supplies strewn around, it was relatively clean. The shower had male shampoo and conditioner in it, but she supposed it would have to do. Now all she had to find was a towel...

Searching under the cabinets she was both pleasantly and creepily surprised. There was indeed a large stack of clean towels and washcloths, along with what had to be at least ten brands of women's shampoos, soaps, and shaving creams. There were unopened packs of razors, toothbrushes, floss, and feminine products. Well, she supposed this would be more than adequate to take a shower with. 

Warming up the water, she undressed and stepped in, letting it flow over her body. She could internally admit that it was nice to feel clean, but it was difficult to relax given the situation. Maybe she could guilt trip Lucas into letting her escape? He didn't seem to have any problem scaring her before... she didn't know him well enough to judge how well it would work. Knock him out? He was so big, though. Even if she managed, or convinced him, would she be able to make it out? They'd catch her in no time... Not to mention that she didn't even know where she was. 

Facing the shower head, she opened her mouth, letting the water flow down her throat. It was kind of gross, drinking warm water, but she was thirsty enough that she didn't care. She could only hope that it was clean. Suddenly, the door opened, breaking her from her thoughts. Her instinct was to cover her body, even though there was a curtain between her and the transgressor. She heard heavy footsteps on the tile, and the rustling of clothing. 

"I brought you clothes- there's a lot of different sizes, so uh, I brought you a bunch to try on. If you can fit in the blue dress, I would wear it. I know you're gonna want to be all defiant, but... it's not worth it. Getting Hendery annoyed. You're much better off on his good side." She said nothing in return, still just washing herself. 

"I'll... leave you alone. Just be done soon. There's a hairdryer in the left drawer, makeup in the right. You should use them." And with that, he left. Turning off the water, she double-checked to make sure he was really gone, peeking out from behind the curtain. She didn't care how much she had idolized him in the past, she was not about to show him shit. Facing herself in the mirror, she took a deep breath.


	6. Hidden Treasures

It took Y/N more than a few minutes to make herself presentable. She started by drying her hair, taking the time to style it how she normally would, which wasn't as easy a process as one would expect. After that, she begrudgingly applied makeup. It wasn't that she didn't like it, (although she believed that no woman should be expected to wear makeup), she just didn't like the idea of getting ready to be... well, sold. 

Once she was satisfied with that, she looked to the dresses. On the one hand, she didn't want to satisfy Hendery by wearing the blue dress. Just the thought of it tasted poorly in her mouth. Lucas did warn her against crossing him, though... And on top of that, he had insinuated that she was too big to fit in it. What a jerk. Glaring at it, she grabbed it by the collar. It couldn't hurt to try. 

Pulling it on and wiggling into it, she adjusted it by the waist, twisting the garment left and right. She didn't want to look in the mirror... Finally, she drew her eyes up, looking over herself. The dress was tight fitting at the top, with a strange, semi-translucent lace texture. That being said, it still adequately covered her personal areas. That same lace cloth wrapped around and turned into the overlay for the skirt, which was long in the back and party length in the front. The whole thing was a deep, royal blue, complementing her skin tone much more nicely than she expected. It tied with an asymmetrical ribbon around the waist, made of the same, matte blue fabric as the main skirt. It was beautiful, and she hated it. 

She had never been too confident with herself. She had her high and low days. Some days, mirrors weren't that bad, and others, she wished she could blind herself after looking at her image. She hadn't worn a dress in a while. Seeing it intricacies, the fitting, it made her hate herself. She knew it should be the least of her concern, considering the situation, but she couldn't help it. She had to stave off the urge to cry for fear of ruining her makeup. 

At this moment, she heard a knock on the door, a sound with a familiarly heavy weight. 

"Y/N? Are you almost ready? It's getting kinda late." 

"I, uh..." She swallowed, trying to get rid of the shakiness in her voice. "I need to put shoes on." 

"Oh! I forgot. Here, we'll come pick you out some." She didn't want to leave the room. After a moment, he called again, quieter this time, as if soothing a frightened animal. "Y/N?" 

"Y-yeah, I'm coming." She forced herself to reach for the doorhandle, every cell in her body fighting against her will. She knew Lucas wouldn't open the door on her- she had to go. She grabbed the handle, pulling down faster than she could psych herself out. He was standing a few feet away, just enough to be out of the way. Making eye contact, he looked her over. 

"Good, it fits perfectly. You look great!" A day ago, she would have loved to hear that from him. Now, it was just unsettling, if not depressing. "Now let's find you some shoes!" He led her to the back half of his room, where there were two smaller openings. The first was a single black door, and the other was a set of double doors. He moved to open the double doors, holding one open so that she was able to walk in freely before him. 

It was dark inside, but it smelled like perfume and laundry detergent. The room felt airy... What was this? He wasn't going to try anything, was he? No, if he were planning on it, he would have done it by now. So what, then? He said they were going to get shoes, so- Just as she thought though the logical steps, he flipped the light on, lighting up the space. 

The room was much longer than she expected, but only had room for one person to walk down the center comfortably. The walls were completely lined with all types of female clothing. There were dresses, skirts, blouses, a few pants and shorts, some... undesirably creepy garments as well. Underneath these hangers, there were rows and rows of shoes. It was incredible- it looked bigger than any dressing room she'd ever seen. Could she even see the end of the hall? How big was this building in total?

"Everything's organized by size. Do you know what shoe size you might be?" She wasn't completely sure, but she took her best guess, and followed him as they walked down. Eventually, they stopped as Lucas faced her towards the left, gesturing down to the shoes. 

"Alright, this is what we've got around that size. There aren't many colors that don't go with blue, but I'd maybe stick to black or white?" She looked down quickly, just picking out whatever shoes fell into her line of sight. 

"Just the black flats are fine." He laughed a bit weakly. 

"That's uh, not gonna fly. You're gonna want heels, or else Hendery's gonna pick your shoes for you. You do not want that." Looking down as well, he knelt, picking out something. As he did so, he pulled out a bench from under the hanging clothes, something that she hadn't seen until he did so. Stepping back, he silently offered her the place to sit down. She did so, watching confusedly as he knelt at her feet. As he grabbed her ankle softly, she stumbled. 

"I- I can do that myself-" 

"It's not appropriate for a lady to kneel or open her knees in front of a man. It's no trouble, really." He slipped it onto her foot, finally giving her a good look at the shoe. It was black, fitting the shape of her foot with a sleek, strapped design. Honestly, there was barely any shoe at all. Over the main strap, there was a dainty black velvet flower. 

"It's a touch-me-not flower." He said as he buckled the shoe on the side, noting her stare. "I mean, the real scientific name is mimosa... pudica, I think? Don't hold me to that. Anyway, they're really pretty, I think they suit you." A touch-me-not. How ironic. He easily did the other shoe- it broke her heart to think about how many people he'd done this to. How many girls had been through this closet, made up in that bathroom? How many had made it out?

Standing, he offered her a hand to get up. Reluctantly taking it, she stood, trying to get her footing. She hadn't worn heels in a while, either. They weren't unfathomably tall or thin, but it was still uncomfortable. He let her hold onto his elbow as he led her to the elevator, evidently not concerned with her running away. He shut the door behind him, taking her up. The buttons were still unlabeled, but as far as she could remember they were going further up than the conference room floor. 

"Where are we going?" She asked. 

"Kun's office." So she was right, that hadn't been his office. She knew it would be too bare. "He takes the clients up there, it's a bit nicer. Obviously it's very official, but it's more welcoming than the meeting rooms." She had so many questions. Why did he live in the basement? Where were the others? Was this their permanent home, or a functioning base that outshot from the original? Who would be there? What was the client like? 

She didn't have time to ask anything before the elevator doors slid open again.


	7. Scrutiny

When the doors revealed the room behind them, she was actually quite surprised. Of course, she was expecting it to be elegant to an extent, but it was particularly... well, different. Rather than red carpets and mahogany finish, everything was very modern. The floor was black tiles, which matched with most of the furniture. All the sleek surfaces, most notably the desk, were this same tile-esque texture, while the chairs were a more velvety black with silver accents and support. 

There were blackout curtains on the window, although they were drawn back to allow light into the room. She would have tried to look out and see where they were, but the windows were clearly blinded. Still, based on the color of the light, it may have been close to midday, although she couldn't tell if it was morning or afternoon. It felt a bit weird to be so dressed up in the middle of the day, but there wasn't much she could do about it. 

There were a few black doors on each side of the room, although it was unclear if they were Kun's private rooms, storage, passages, or holding cells. Honestly, they could be anything. Kun and another man were conversing at the back of the space near the main desk, and it was only as he saw her and gestured to the others that she realized just how many people were in the room. 

Xiaojun and YangYang appeared from the corners, moving to shut the curtains and send the room into darkness. Hendery appeared behind her and Lucas, startling her as he slammed the deadbolt shut. 

"Hey, honey." He muttered, passing her with a smirk. "Love the dress." She felt something brush the back of her leg, and she chose to ignore it as disgust rose in her throat. "Put on a good show, okay?" Lucas obviously heard him, but chose to do nothing. She didn't know if he chose to out of respect or necessity, but nonetheless, it rubbed her the wrong way. At this, she began to see some new faces as well. 

Lurking a few feet behind Kun was a thinner man, slightly shorter than the leader, clearly not any sort of client. The most unsettling thing about him were the two giant automatic weapons on his hips. Who was it? Some sort of grunt? No, that didn't make sense. Then... Before she could figure it out, though, Lucas reached behind her to mess with a dial on the wall. With that, the lights on the ceiling shifted on, providing a soft, warm light. It was then that she saw the mystery man's face. 

Ten. Ten from WayV. Yet another one of her idols, perfect image shattered in her mind. He was carrying guns, and she assumed that he knew how to use them. Would there be no end to this? The only one she hadn't seen yet was... was WinWin. Please don't let him be involved... She practically prayed. If there could only be one at this point, she'd be happy. Please...

"Let's get started." Kun spoke out, voice achingly familiar and yet completely foreign to her. He had not made eye contact with her since she arrived. Maybe he thought he was above it. Surprisingly, they didn't stay in the current room, but rather she was led by Lucas into one of the adjoining doors. The lighting matched the open room, indicating that they were connected. There were no windows, and a small auditorium's worth of seats- maybe fifty? At the front of all of it, there was a very short black stage- a glorified stair, if anything. Lucas brought her in, leading her to the front and up onto the step, leaning down to mutter in her ear. 

"Are you going to stay up here, or do we have to restrain you?" She didn't know whether it was meant to be threatening or just come off that way, but she shook her head quickly. 

"I'll stay." He nodded as if to tell her that she made the right decision. And with that, the man left her in the light, alone. She hadn't realized just how good a job his large frame had been doing of providing her a sick sense of comfort. Now, she had no shield, no body beside her. He took a seat in the second row, along with Xiaojun and YangYang. Ten and Hendery sat to Kun's left in the front row, the client to the right. He was dressed in a simple black tuxedo, hat, and shades, clearly trying to mask his identity. That being said, she could tell he was older, maybe mid forties or fifties. 

"She's quite submissive." The man commented, noting the lack of chains or ropes. "Or at least easily manipulated. That's generally good in such a purchase." This remark caused a flare of anger in her chest. Who was he to judge her character so quickly? She wanted to call back, but her eyes shifted to Lucas. He was giving her a warning stare. Gritting her teeth, she held her tongue. 

"She's quite young, although not suspiciously so." Kun began explaining. "Her birth name is Y/N. You are obviously free to change it, and we do recommend it for safety reasons. I'll remind you of your non-disclosure agreement and the consequences if you put our business in jeopardy." The man seemed to clearly understand this. "The rest is clear, as she's standing in front of you. I trust height, race, figure, and etcetera are all to your approval?" The man stood, gesturing forward. 

"May I?" 

"Of course." She shrank back as both Kun and the client approached her. She felt both of their eyes on her body, judging her worth by every inch. It was disgusting. He reached forward to grab her wrists, holding them above her head. 

"Hmm. Not perfect, but I suppose that's to be expected. Definitely one of the better I've seen though. Quite redeemable, considering you've only offered one, today." She tried not to whimper as she saw his other hand draw back, reaching for her midsection. This was going to be awful. 

At some point, though, his hand stopped. Daring to look down, she saw that another's had gotten in his way. Glancing to the right, she saw the thin frame from earlier up close. How had Ten gotten up here so fast? And more importantly, why?

"We politely request that you don't overly handle the goods until the exchange paperwork is in order." He said smoothly. At this, the client let go of her wrists as well, letting her now-sore arms drop slowly. 

"Yes, of course, my apologies." He continued looking her over, but refrained from touching her. "You know, it would be much easier to calculate my offer if my understanding of the subject was more... complete." 

"You know by now that we only take offers in this state. I can guarantee you that her skin, birthmark, health, and scarring situation is exactly how we described to you in your inquiry. We have a business guarantee, after all." Kun reassured him. She silently found herself sighing as the relief of not being derobed put her at ease. 

"Alright, I'll gibe you forty-five thousand for her." Kun's eyes shifted to her's for the very first time that day, and then back to the client. She had no idea what she saw in that moment. It filled her with both fear and peace, yet spoke no words. She couldn't read him at all. 

"That's ridiculously low." 

"I disagree, I think it's appropriate, especially for a customer of my particular statistics. In addition, I don't seem to see your financial handler anywhere, so who are you to-" 

"WinWin is unfortunately caught up in preliminary promotional photoshoots with 127. He'll be back for our performance tomorrow. That being said, I am more than confident in my abilities as a business man, and in turn, I am telling you that you are completely out of your lane." 

"Fifty thousand." 

"Too low." The client began to look exasperated at this point. 

"What do you want from me? How much can you possibly think-" 

"A heart can sell for close to one million dollars alone." 

"You know I'm not in the organ trafficking business." 

"Regardless." 

"You know that fifty thousand is standard for a human being sold whole." 

"Yes, but I'm considering the demand. I could dismember her myself and make close to forty million from the parts alone." 

"I definitely can't offer you forty million for one bitch." 

"I'll ask that you speak respectfully in the presence of a woman. I'm not asking for forty million. Let's say... five hundred thousand." 

"That's ridiculous!" The man exclaimed. "I'll go up to one hundred thousand, and that is my final offer!" Kun shook his head, almost mockingly, clicking his tongue in turn. 

"Abhorrent. I'm telling you my price." The man moved forward quickly, seething at this point. 

"You think that you can just bring me here, offer me one product, and then dare-" He lifted his hands as if to strike a blow. Kun didn't move in inch. Suddenly, she heard a few loud bangs, followed by a harsh cry. Screaming, she dropped to her knees, covering her ears with her arms in terror. She saw a heavy black boot step in front of her, the smoking tip of a gun just barely in her line of sight.


	8. Cage the Elephant

"Oh my God..." She whimpered on the floor. "Oh my God!" Her eyes began to water in an automatic reaction as she looked up to Ten. He was standing directly in front of her, nearly stepping on her. Both of his automatic weapons were smoking from the end, and his eyes were staring intently in front of him. She didn't want to look over, she didn't want to see it... but she couldn't help it. 

The older man- the client, was lying on the ground, bleeding all over the amphitheater tiles. His limps were twitching just slightly, a natural reaction for the recently deceased. That didn't make it any less unsettling. She wasn't actually sure how many shots had been fired, but even one was one too many for her. Before she knew what was going on, she felt someone gently grab her upper arms, lifting her from the ground and pulling her away. Lucas. 

"L-Lucas, what's going on." 

"Shh." Was all he could say as Kun approached Ten. 

"Was that particularly necessary?" 

"I have orders." Surprisingly, Kun was taking this rather well, as if it was a normal occurrence. Did he not just see what he did?

"Well, yes, I suppose that's true. In any case, thank you. I didn't want his dirty hands anywhere near me. Unfortunately, though, that does mean we've lost the day's client." 

"I can get her sold quickly if you want." Hendery offered. "Of course, it'll be nowhere near as reputable, but..." 

"That won't be an issue." Kun cut him off. "We'll bring her to the next show. We can pick up some more cargo, go back to functioning normally. This whole little mess will be an anomaly." With that, he turned to Xiaojun. "Don't bother with his wounds, I don't want another incident. Please dispose of him as quickly as possible." He turned again. "YangYang, I need the bottom of the trailer cleared out- we don't need too much room, just work something out." Then, he looked to Ten. 

"You'll do as you always have, and replace the lock on the trailer as well. Can't have an escapee on our hands to pile onto this. Hendery, you take her when we get there." Lucas looked like he had something to say about this, but Hendery was quick to swoop in and spin her away by the shoulder. 

"With pleasure." 

"Lucas, you talk to the producers. I'll handle the rest. Everybody good? We have a two hour drive and a venue showing tonight. I can't afford any mistakes." They all nodded, Kun checking for each response before exiting the room. Things quickly jumped into motion after that. Xiaojun began dragging the body out of sight with surprising strength, clearly disgusted by the amount of blood on the floor. 

YangYang left out the same door Kun had, although much less ceremoniously. He was followed by Ten. It was only at this point that Y/N started to realize the true danger she was in- Lucas was walking out the side door. This left her alone with Hendery. 

"Alright, baby, I guess we should get you ready to go." Grabbing her by the elbow, he started to lead her out the back. 

"Can... can I take my shoes off?" It was getting difficult to walk, although his grip was providing a strange type of forceful support. 

"Why? You look so pretty in them. But I suppose, if it's too hard for you-" He let go abruptly, causing her to lose her balance and tumble awkwardly to the floor. He watched her with a sickening smile on his face, evidently amused by her struggle. Still, not really seeing any opportunity for further humiliation, she took her heels off. As she rose, he latched back onto her, reminding her, 

"You'll need to put those back on for the next sale. Unfortunately, you'll have to wait for the concert to end, but I suppose you don't have much room to complain." Leading her out of the back, he took her to the elevator, pressing one of the middle buttons. Unlike Lucas, he obviously didn't trust her to stay put, as his hand never left her skin. It was discomfortingly warm, despite her internal aversion to him. 

When the doors opened again, they were back to the parking lot, except this time there were many more vehicles. In addition to the black vehicle she had been taken in, there were several other similar automobiles, some personal-looking four-seaters and sedans, and then two overwhelmingly large tour busses. He led her across to the one parked in front, placing his hand on the side and sliding the door open quite surreally. 

"After you." He gestured, giving her the room to walk up. As she climbed the stairs, she looked around in awe. The whole thing was covered in LED's. The ceiling was low, indicating that the upper level may have had beds in it. There was a small kitchen, a sitting area, good stereo, small personal belongings littered around- this was their personal tour bus. Ten and YangYang were already inside as well. 

"I'm staying in the tour bus?" She asked, both confused and amazed. Despite her trauma, she had still been a WayV fan much longer than she had been a WayV kidnapping victim. 

"I mean, technically." Hendery snickered, using the toe of his shoe to lift up a hatch on the floor. Looking down, she saw cardboard boxes and a few suitcases. It couldn't have been more than two feet deep. 

"You can't be serious." She stuttered, looking down. There was maybe just enough room for her to lay down inside. Was this what Kun had meant by the cargo area?! This was torture- they had said the drive was over two hours long. There was no way- Hendery was just messing with her. As she tried to make eye contact with the others, though, they looked dead serious as well. 

"Come on, we don't have all day!" He smiled. 

"No, I-" Sighing, he shook his head. 

"You really don't get how this works, huh? I don't negotiate with our victims, sorry." Before she could do anything, he wrapped both of his arms around her waist, dropping her unceremoniously in the hole as she was kicking and screaming. She tried to block the door, but he warned her that he wasn't hesitant to smash her fingers in the wake. As she cried out for Lucas' help, for Kun, even, the darkness of the cargo hold engulfed her.


	9. Combatant

She spent the first few minutes of time trying to beat her way out. A boot that she assumed belonged to Hendery stamped on the ground a few times as she did so, but she was undeterred. She continued to try and force her way out despite the lock, continuously shouting Lucas' name. He was the most likely to break. It was only when a muffled voice interrupted her that she paused to hear. 

"Could you fucking quit it?" Hendery said, "No one's coming to get you. Lucas is upstairs, he can't hear shit. Even if he could, I don't know why you think he'd help you. He was the one torturing you after all. When people say women are crazy, they really mean it, huh?" She wanted to say something back, but he cut her off again. "Anyway, this will be easier if you just be quiet. One more word and I'll make you shut up." 

She wasn't really in the mood to get chloroformed- or more likely get the shit beaten out of her. She breathed in deeply, forcing herself to stop crying, although she couldn't quite get the shaking to subside. She decided to finally take in her surroundings properly. As she had originally assessed, the hole was no more than two feet deep. She could freely move her arms to about the height of her elbow, but it was quite claustrophobic. 

There were various boxes and articles around her, but she doubted any of it housed anything useful towards her escape. Maybe if she could find a belt or some other metal apparatus, she could use it as a weapon? That would be an issue for later. Every time the bus took a turn, things were sliding into her from the left and right, pushing her around slightly. Fearing her own suffocation, she focused on slowing her breathing and staying situated under the trapdoor. 

Once she was sufficiently calm, she started reaching out to her left and right, trying to feel around for items. Every time she heard someone step overhead, she paused, worried that they would hear her or Hendery would decide to mess with her for fun. She knew that they'd have to undo the lock and thus she'd be prepared, but it still unsettled her. Clawing at a box to her left, she felt something soft... It was likely a shirt or some other similar article of clothing. 

Pulling on it, she found that it easily came loose, so she drew it to her chest, balling it up. Awkwardly shifting, she managed to get it up by her head, turning onto her side in an effort to get comfortable. Although her hips against the floor weren't too comfortable, the clothing supplied a decent pillow of sorts. Breathing in again, her nose was filled with the scent of laundry detergent and cologne. Well, at least it was clean. She found her mind wandering, wondering which man it belonged to. Shaking her head, she reprimanded herself for even considering her own kidnappers as the people she had thought them to be. 

She shut her eyes and attempted to get a little bit of sleep as they drove. She wasn't really mentally prepared to stay in this position for nearly three hours, so the best she could do was black out for some of it. Throughout the ride, she found herself falling asleep for ten to fifteen minute increments, fading in and out as she woke up in between. She shifted a few times, but eventually the vibrations of the road beneath her and the soft voices above lulled her. 

Thankfully, she awoke as they arrived, the metal of the brakes startling her slightly. She heard some heavier footsteps walk above the trap door, stomping down a few times. 

"Honey, time to wake up." She heard. Hendery. Blinking the sleep out of her eyes, she looked up attentively, waiting for the door to open. The next stomp that came was much more aggressive, scaring her a bit. "Answer me, bitch." 

"I-I'm up." She stuttered, not sure how to respond properly. 

"Good. We have a show to play, you're going to stay here. After that, we'll bring you out to sit in the car with the other girls. And, well, I'm sure you'll find a good home." He laughed. 

"W-wait! You really don't plan on leaving me here for another-" 

"Did I ask how you felt about it? Like you have any way of changing it." After a short pause, she heard a few footsteps, and then, "Come on, Kun will be waiting for us." Out of the chorus of 'yes's and agreements, she heard one voice clear above the other, sparking a thread of hope in her heart. 

"Lucas! Come on, you've gotta help me!" Silence. Shaking the trapdoor, she was practically begging. "Please, I..." More silence. She could almost sense the others looking at him. 

"Why would I care how you feel about it?" His voice said, the spite in his tone feeling quite genuine. "As far as we're concerned, you're a five-hundred-thousand-dollar-paycheck. Now do yourself a favor, listen to Hendery, and shut your mouth." She couldn't help the tears welling up in her eyes as she heard all of their footsteps exit the bus, door slamming behind them. Only when she was sure they were gone did she allow herself to start full-on crying. 

At first, she was confused. Why had Lucas pretended to care about her or try and be friends with her if he was just going to turn around and fuck her over? Was it just some twisted mind game he liked to play? Did he do it to all the girls. As she was wallowing in her grief, though, she began to realize the situation she had put him in. She had completely forgotten that the others didn't know how he had treated her. It had happened when he held the knife to her throat, and now it was happening again. She felt so stupid- now they would be even more suspicious of him. Still, it spoke of his character to some degree that he was still participating in these actions...

Just as she was reprimanding herself, she heard the bus door open again, and footsteps walk into the vehicle. 

"Lucas?" She called out hopefully, wondering if he really had come back to save her. Maybe he would even let her go? Just as she spoke, though, the steps paused. A voice that she was completely unfamiliar with grunted something that she could just barely make out. 

"Did you hear that?" It was a deep male voice, clearly weathered- maybe mid thirties? Who could it be? Was it a manager? Should she call out for help?

"I told you they'd have some whores on here. Let's grab them and bounce!" 

"Spread out, we'll find them." Shit. These definitely weren't any people with WayV. Why hadn't they bothered to lock the bus? Or was this part of some plan. She forced herself to keep quiet as the steps wandered around the vehicle, tearing open cabinets, curtains, anything that had the slightest chance of hiding a person. Suddenly, she heard the smashing of metal mere inches from her nose- she couldn't help but whimper as she saw the door shake. With a slight snicker, she heard the first voice. 

"Found them!"


	10. Pragmatic or Protective?

Her breathing grew labored again as the trapdoor above her shook, metal clinking as the mysterious person ripped the lock off. She tried to shimmy her way to the left, hiding under the floor, but she didn't move fast enough. The space flooded with colored LED light as the door flew upwards, leaving her face to fact with a heavyset man, face obscured by a ski mask. 

"Haha! I knew it!" He reached down and grabbed her arm harshly with a gloved hand, yanking her out of the hole and causing her to hit her knee on the metal edge of the entrance. Crying out in pain, she tried to twist away, but his grip was too strong. She watched helplessly as a second man looked into the cargo hold. 

"She's the only one." 

"She can't be, I swear they take ten girls per location!" 

"I'm telling you, she's the only one, man!" 

"Fuck, what a waste of time." He looked her over. "Still, this is what they get for trying to come into our territory. They knew full well what they were doing, playing a show here. Let's get her in the van, we'll deal with those asshats when they get back." 

"Shouldn't be long, the concert has to be ending soon." 

"Well then, you'd better hurry." The first man shoved her into a third by the shoulder blades. Causing her to elicit a noise again. This new man grabbed her as well, pushing her harshly in the direction of what she could only assume was another vehicle. She tried to resist, but she was wearing no shoes and the concrete of the parking deck was like sandpaper on her feet. 

"Stop dragging, bitch." He snarled, hitting her in the side and knocking the wind out of her, causing her to lean over slightly. If we get there early enough, we can have some fun before I deal with your little friends." Her gut twisted, terror building quickly. Just as she clenched her eyes shut, though, she heard a voice. 

"What do you think you're doing with my property." Her salt-filled eyes shot open as the sound reached her ears. Was that... Kun? Whipping around, she tried to see, but the only thing she caught a glimpse of was the first man who had pulled her out of the bus. 

"I'd ask you the same thing." He snarled. "You know this area belongs to us." 

"I don't even know who you are." he commented back idly. 

"I- How dare you! You're just going to pretend like we've never met?" 

"Maybe I'd be more inclined to talk through the details with you if you'd get your disgusting hands off of that woman." 

"Fat chance! How many girls did you take from the show just now, huh? Two? Five?"

"Seven, actually." Kun responded again. "There were thousands here, I'm unsure as to why it's such a big deal for you." Y/N cried out again as the man's grip tightened in anger, causing him to whip around and slap her in the face. 

"Shut up!" 

"Well, you have no semblance of proper business." The leader mentioned, completely serious. "Handling goods like that is a surefire way to lower your price. She was worth half a million before you beat her all up." 

"Like I give a shit! I'm happy to take 50k for the whore!" Kun clicked his tongue in disappointment. 

"How utterly atrocious. You make me sick to the stomach- I'm almost sorry to be in the same business as you. I suppose there will always be anomalies, though." At this, she heard a click. The man holding her, as well as the other two, switched into defensive stances, giving her the room to see. 

Kun was standing there, now holding a standard handgun out in font of him, locked, loaded, and ready to fire. Hendery was standing behind him, surprisingly silent, along with Xiaojun. Looking to her latter captor, she realized that he was distracted by the firearm. In one last bout of strength, she knelt to the ground, wrenching her arm out of his grip at an awkward angle. He frantically waved his hand around for a moment, attempting to regain his hold, but he was too skittish to turn away from the gun in order to grab her. 

This was it! She could run- if Kun was distracted for long enough, she could- As she was scrambling to her feet and running to the area behind the intruders, she ran face-first into what felt like a brick wall. Looking up, she realized that it was Lucas. He was still in performing clothes, and his forehead was slightly sweaty, but it was definitely him. Looking down, he held onto her, muttering, 

"Sorry, you're not getting away that easily." Well, shit. This was just going fantastically. She didn't know which group of men posed less of a threat to her. Ten was standing to Lucas's left, also in performing attire, but guns strapped to his belt. At this point, the intruders were surrounded. She watched in horror as Kun stepped forward, gun still facing the man. 

"You think you can come to my show, steal my property, disrespect my business, and get away with it? I'll take whatever I want, wherever I want, and it's none of anyone's business- especially not D-list incompetent lackeys such as yourself." As he was speaking the men were backing up, leaving her room to see the area behind him. Wait... what was-

She frantically looked to her right, but Ten was distracted- he didn't see it. Lucas must have been caught up in something as well, because no one was warning them! Behind Kun, a fourth man in similar attire was sneaking up, completely silent. How hadn't he noticed! What should- could he... If she let Kun die, she would just get kidnapped by the other men. She didn't have time to weigh her options. 

"Kun! Watch out!" She shouted. Unfortunately, she had unintentionally made the situation worse. Confused as to the commotion, the leader had looked to her, making eye contact for the second time since he had met her. In this moment of distraction, the fourth man jumped on him from behind, wrestling the gun out of his hand. Hendery and Xiaojun stepped back instinctively, assumedly unarmed. Ten moved to draw and cock his weapons, but the man was too fast. He shot towards their smaller group in the back, causing both men- and Y/N in turn- to drop to the ground. 

Laughing, the first man moved out of Kun's original line of fire, grabbing the gun from his comrade to point it at the leader. Re-cocking it, he held it to the man's head, although his face never lost composure. She looked over to Ten again, but he was sprawled on the floor, unable to properly reach his belt. Without thinking, she squirmed out of Lucas's now loose hold to grab Ten's gun. She didn't exactly know how to fire it, but she didn't really have a choice right now. 

Pointing it and pulling the trigger, her face grew white as nothing happened. How do you put a bullet in the chamber? The click attracted the perpetrators' attention, spinning to face her with a grin on his face. 

"You won't do it, bitch." Cock it- she had to- where was the little- the little thing? Feeling around the gun with shaking hands, she found a latch. This better be it- The man moved forward, assumedly coming to shoot her first. Pulling the trigger a second time, her eyes squinted shut as a bang rang out, smoke streaming from the barrel. She hear a deep male shout, and when she opened her eyes again, the man was on the floor, clutching his arm. She had barely managed to graze him. Still, it was plenty of time. 

By now, Ten has reoriented himself and gotten up, putting four bullets in each of the four men's heads with no issue. Breathing out, she was shaking. She had shot a person. Kun stood, brushing his outfit off. There were flecks of blood plaguing the lighter areas. 

"Ugh, the stylists aren't going to be pleased with this." 

"Tell them it's paint again?" YangYang asked with a snicker. Wait- when had YangYang arrived? And where had he been? She wasn't exactly in a position to ask. 

"I suppose. It's so painful to cover an outfit with paint. Obnoxious. They should have known they were in over their head." 

"I'm sorry for not paying attention." Ten addressed the leader. "I'll be sure to focus next time." 

"It's fine." Kun reassured him. At this, though, he looked to Y/N, still partially held back by Lucas's arms. "As for you..." He looked her over curiously. "That was quite interesting. I have some questions for you. I may have committed a short oversight." 

Well that wasn't threatening at all.


	11. One Time Offer

"State your name." 

"Y/N..." 

"Full name." 

"Y/N... (M/L) L/N." 

She answered all of his preliminary questions with ease. Age, heritage, living situation, parental situation, life prior to her kidnapping, etcetera. It became a bit stranger when he started asking about... stranger concepts. Childhood trauma. Experience with weapons. Ever having been threatened with a weapon. Sexual assaults, familial or otherwise. Experience with anxiety. Experience with depression. Any mental or physical diagnoses. Past relationships. Although she felt that all of these were quite intrusive, she answered as honestly as possible. 

The entire time, he had been jotting things down on some sheet of paper. After he had stopped, he started asking her to walk him through the steps of what the people who knew her were going through right now. Would they look for her? What were the chances of her getting rescued? At this point, she became even more confused. Was he trying to gauge the danger of holding onto her for so long? But in that case, why ask the other questions?

When it seemed he was satisfied, he stood from his desk, looking at her. 

"Well, I wouldn't say you're much more special than I had initially expected, but you do intrigue me to some extent." Looking up to the area behind her, he tapped on the desk, causing a change in the room. While the back and front walls remained unchanged, the two side walls shifted colors, becoming windows. They had been some form of one-way mirror? Now, she saw Lucas, Xiaojun, and Hendery lined up on the left, and YangYang, Ten, and a third person on the right. Looking closely, her heart sank as she saw the familiar form of yet another of her idols... WinWin. 

"All of them have been listening to your answers. Now, we hold a debate, followed by a vote. Of course, I make the decisions, but I've rarely given any executive orders. We function as a group." Raising his hands, he said quite loudly, "You can all come in." They filed in through the doors. Hendery was smiling slightly creepily as usual, Ten and Xiaojun were stoic, YangYang and WinWin looked fairly nonchalant, and Lucas looked incredibly worried. 

"I am willing to allow Y/N to train as a member of our backup team." Kun stated bluntly. Of course, we'll have to find a way to control and test her actual loyalty, as well as keep her ready for sale should it not work out. Aside from that, our other option is to dispose of her immediately." He finished. "On that note, feel free to discuss." 

"I think the answer is clear here." Hendery was the first to jump in. "Do we really want to allocate all of that time, all of those resources, into such a shaky investment? What happens if she kills us and escapes? Or gets us caught? We should just take our half a mil and go." 

"At the same time, added support could make for a better return." WinWin mentioned. "We've always been seven people, we're unsure if that's the peak. It could be that adding an eighth exponentially grows our output, and thus our funds." 

"The risk is too high." Hendery shot back. "Plus, who's gonna want to take the effort to train her?" 

"I'd do it." Ten cut in. She was surprised, but even Kun seemed as though he wasn't expecting it. 

"Alright, so we have two votes for keep, one for reject." Kun tallied up. "Any other weigh-ins?" 

"I'd warn you that if you want her back up to her initial value, we'd have to treat her bruises and other wounds. We have yet to check up on the actual damage." Xiaojun cut in. "It could take me anywhere from a week to a month to completely restore her. In that case, you'd have the time to test this little theory out." 

"Three for yes. YangYang?" 

"I... honestly don't even care." the boy shrugged. "If Ten's the one dealing with her, that's no skin off my back. If you want me to pick a side, though, I kinda have to agree with Hendery. As much as I like the idea of money, it just seems a little risky." 

"Two no, three yes? Lucas, you could even it out if you wanted, or make it a majority. What do you think?" The blood drained from Lucas's face, obviously worried. On the one hand, they were already suspicious of his relationship to Y/N, but on the other, if he went against her, it was all up to Kun. Swallowing hard, he looked over to her. 

"I trust WinWin's judgement on financials, so my vote is keep." He steadied his voice. "We'll just have to keep an eye on her. If something goes haywire, there are plenty of people willing to pay good money for young girls." As he said this, Hendery's expression changed from passive amusement to sheer infuriation. Kun ignored the tension, addressing the decision. 

"In that case, it looks like Y/N is here to stay. Ten, walk her with Xiaojun to the medical bay, get her cleaned up. You get one chance to train her properly. Worst case scenario, if something goes completely wrong, we can sell her in parts. Lucas, you stay, I want to speak with you." Her heart skipped beat. Shit. Had she gotten him in trouble? He looked sick to his stomach as he walked towards Kun's desk, but she couldn't stay to see as Xiaojun and Ten took her away. 

"Do we need to restrain you?" Ten asked. 

"No." 

"Good." They led her towards what she assumed was the medical bay, on yet another different floor. They asked if she knew where the stairs were, and she explained that she was actually very unfamiliar with the entirety of the building. Understanding, he promised to show her around after they checked her out. 

When they arrived at the medical bay, she looked around in awe. There was a long room with what had to have been ten sets of cots, each with open curtains between each. They had her follow them to the back, where there was a thin door. Upon opening it, she saw a few real beds, several large tables, and the walls lined with counters and cabinets- it was a weird mix of sleeping quarters and a doctor's office. 

"Here, sit down." Xiaojun offered, patting a hand on the bed. "Are you wearing anything under that?" Her eyes widened in horror as he asked this. She began sputtering for an answer, trying to decide whether to run or slap him. "No, no! Not like that!" He said in a loud, awkward voice, noting her expression. "I- I just meant so that I could look at your bruises properly- Not-" She mentally scorned herself for reacting so poorly. 

"O-oh, yeah, it's fine." 

"Okay, well in that case, Ten, do you mind stepping out?" The man looked slightly hesitant, but nodded and turned around to leave. 

"I'll be outside the door." Xiaojun nodded in agreement. As he pulled together his tools, she awkwardly took off the dress. She knew many fans of WayV had probably dreamed of taking off their clothes in front of a member, but definitely not like this... He instructed her to lay down flat, pulling on a pair of disposable rubber gloves. 

"Alright, tell me if this hurts." He pressed a hand to her side, assumedly because there was some bruising there. Although it was a bit achy, that was the case for most of her body, so she said nothing. "Okay, next." They continued this process for a few minutes. When he pressed against one of her thighs, the spot that had been banged into the floor caused her to wince. She didn't mention it, but he noticed easily. In addition, one of her upper arms was badly bruised, along with her temple. 

"It seems like you have no broken bones or serious organ damage, just heavy bruising. I'll give you some countertop pain killers. If you find yourself having PTSD or going into shock: nightmares, anxiety, all of that, you just let me know, okay?" She nodded, crossing her legs awkwardly. She didn't feel comfortable without the dress, as much as she had hated it before. Taking the gloves off, he opened a few cabinets, pulling out a pair of jeans and a t-shirt, a little white bottle, and a pair of flip flips. 

"It isn't much, but it'll be nicer than having to wear the dress. You can wear these for now, I'll have Ten take you down to the closet on your way to the training grounds. We'll be outside, you can come when you're ready." He left the room, leaving her on the bed. Well, apparently they trusted her enough not to find a scalpel in here and skin them alive. She knew she wouldn't be successful. It would be best to bide her time for now...


	12. Time Crunch

"Let's see what you've got." Ten said, pointing to the target in front of her. It was made of a strange material, some sort of weird cross between vinyl and plywood. It was riddled with holes, but they weren't circular, suggesting that the target had some level of self-healing or memory capabilities. As big as the gun she shot at the earlier attacker was, Ten had given her a handgun to start out with. Breathing in deeply, she held it up with her dominant hand, shutting one of her eyes and squeezing the trigger. 

It was nowhere near her mark. If she were lucky, it might have hit a target in a different lane altogether. She tensed up as she felt embarrassment wash over her. Even for her, this was pathetic. Sighing, Ten walked close to her, thankful that he was out of range for her shot. 

"I'm not sure what movies you're watching, but that's not how you shoot a gun." He stated with a surprisingly patient tone. Reaching out to turn her hand, he stepped behind her to help her feel the position she was meant to be in. "Don't angle your wrist, hold it straight. There'll be some kickback, so be prepared. The more firepower, the harder it'll be to hold steady." His legs were nearly on either side of hers, and she could feel his controlled breathing against her back. Moving his other hand to the opposite side, he fixed her stance. 

"The angles all matter, so pay attention. Don't shut your eye, all you're doing is limiting your visibility and messing up your depth perception." He picked up her other wrist, gently bringing it to the side of the firearm. "Hold it with both hands. You should never use one unless it's absolutely necessary." It was only when he stepped back again that she realized she was practically holding her breath. "Okay, now fire again." Staring down the lane to the target, her chest rose sharply before she shot directly towards it. She saw a few pieces splinter off the shoulder of the structure.

"Much better!" He said happily. "You need some practice, obviously, but what else do you have to do, huh?" He grabbed his water bottle off the wall, taking a huge sip, then turned to speak again as he wiped his upper lip. "Just fire straight shots for say... an hour? Then we can go get lunch and come back." 

"An hour?" She asked incredulously. 

"How else do you expect to improve?" 

"It just seems excessive for one type of shot, I-" At this, Ten's gaze quickly shifted from amusement to dead seriousness. 

"Y/N, we don't have much time. If you want to be allowed to stay, you have to prove yourself useful, and quickly. It's my job to get you there, no matter what. So no complaining." She sighed. 

"Yeah, I get that, but why can't I just go home? I promise I won't tell, really, I just... I just want to go home." She made eye contact with him, hoping to see some semblance of empathy or even pity, but his mood was unchanging, on the surface at least. Whether that was his training, a personal skill, or his real emotions, she was unsure. 

"It's talking like that that'll get you sold quicker. Now shoot. For an hour." He walked towards the other end of the shooting range, pulling a much larger gun off of a rack within a cabinet. She curiously watched as he fiddled with it, changing aspects and loading it up. Not hearing any shots, he glanced over, waving her stare away. Embarrassed, she turned to the target. Time to practice... 

Surprisingly, the time flew by fairly quickly. Of course, by the end, her arms were fairly sore. She ended up jamming the gun twice during the whole process. Ten had expected this, and was prepared to assist. The first time, he had simply fixed it himself, but the second, he actually showed her the issue and how to deal with it. It was interesting, no matter her familiarity with guns. As she was about to fire another shot, she felt a hand lightly touch on her shoulder. She spun with the weapon, startled. 

"Woah, easy there." He put his hands up. "Watch where you put that, I'm not sure I quite trust you with it." She looked to Ten, then back down at the weapon. 

"Oh... sorry." 

"I'm just messing with you. Your hour is up, you're due for a break. We can go to the kitchen- you understand why I can't exactly take you out." He said, setting his weapon down and motioning for her to do the same. "We'll be back in a minute, so don't worry about that for now." He led her to the elevator, bringing her to the kitchen. 

It was huge, but that should have been expected by now. There were at least two of everything, including refrigerators, ovens, microwaves, freezers, even stoves and sinks. There was a massive island countertop in the center, surrounded by barstools and decorated fairly minimally. Actually, the whole place was pretty bland- apparently they didn't feel much need for interior decorating. Walking to the first fridge, Ten opened it up, looking inside. 

"We've got all sorts of stuff, but uh, it's mostly leftovers..." He said apologetically. "There's half a burger, uhh, some steak we made the other night, Kun's stir-fry vegetables, uh- oh, score! Lucas left a whole thing of ramen in here!" He pulled it out, showcasing the black plastic bowl. "It's nothing fancy, just instant, but do you want some?" She shrugged. 

"Sure, why not?" Fairly overexcited, Ten popped the lid slightly and put the big Tupperware in the microwave, pulling out two smaller bowls from an adjacent cabinet. Once the machine beeped, he pulled it back out, separating it evenly. They ate at the counter side by side, talking for a few minutes. As Y/N didn't really know what was appropriate to ask your idol who is also a criminal kidnapper that you are deathly afraid of, so she let him do most of the asking. It worked out better that way, as he wasn't much of a talker- at least, not with her. 

When they had finished, Ten rinsed out the bowls and put them in the dishwasher, directing her to follow him back down to the shooting range. Once they arrived, he made her run a few more drills with the handgun, offering some final, pickier tips. As she felt her elbows grow weak, he finally called it for the day, explaining that they'd pick a different firearm the next day. Next, he showed her how to properly remove the bullets and store a weapon, quickly talking over how one would clean it if they wanted to. 

"Good job, by the way." He said. It didn't really mean anything to him, but she felt something spark up in her chest as he said it. Knowing that it probably wasn't healthy, she reminded herself that her goal was to get out of here.

"I'm not exactly sure where they're planning on having you sleep." Ten admitted. "Or else I'd show you to your room. We can't exactly have you in the holding area if you're going to be part of the team. Especially not with the other girls down there." The blood drained from her face as he said this. 

"O-other girls?" 

"Well, I mean, yeah, we don't just mess around at those concerts- Oh, hold on, I'm getting a call." He pulled his cellphone out of his pockets as she tried to cope with the reality of what he'd just said. Other girls? Were they in danger too? Could she help them? 

"Hey, Lucas, I was just gonna ask someone about Y/N's living si- what?" His brow furrowed. "Someone a- Oh, no, that wasn't me. I've been with her downstairs. I thought I saw WinWin eating something earlier, though." He quickly mentioned, hanging up. "Come on, we'd better find you a place to sleep before Lucas stabs me to death."


	13. Welcome to the Madness

"That was so much better!" Ten was practically beaming, looking at the smoldering bullet hole in the center of the target. She was smiling as well, proud of how much better she had become. Over their days in the shooting range, she had become well-versed in a number of guns. While she was better at different things, she was able to handle almost anything now. Firearms obviously held some sort of place in Ten's heart, so to help someone figure out how to use them was actually sort of nice for him too. 

She had really been doing nothing but learning how to shoot. Her arms were sore after the first day, but she grew stronger as time went on. It was a bit monotonous- eat breakfast, shoot, eat lunch, shoot, eat dinner, shoot, go back to her room, wake up and do it all again. Ten managed to make it more fun. Now, though, it was time to get serious. 

"Remember, Kun's coming to check on your progress today." She swallowed, nodding. 

"I know." This was her shot. If she tripped up in front of him, the consequences could be dire. Ten knew this as well, but he was confident in her ability. Hanging out with him had almost made her forget her situation, even if they were literally practicing shooting. 

It was only a few minutes before Kun was in the shooting range, nodding to Ten respectfully. He took his coworker aside, talking under their breath for a few minutes. It was a bit awkward to stand by, but she wasn't sure if she really wanted to know what they were saying. In addition, she assumed that the backlash from eavesdropping on Kun wouldn't be good. 

"Alright." He finally said, not looking at her. "Ten, start as planned." Ten nodded, moving to the cabinet to grab a gun. Sighing in relief, she saw that it was one of the handguns. It wasn't the exact one she had used prior, but it would definitely be serviceable. He put it in her hands abruptly. Unlike when they had been alone, he was much more forceful and emotionless. It was almost strange to see such a quick switch. 

"Fire five times near the center mass of the target." Kun said shortly. Oh... just like that? She cleared her throat, breathing in and taking her stance. She knew how to do this. Ten was confident in her, so she had to be confident in herself. Sharply exhaling, she pulled the trigger, almost scared to let her eyes truly take in the target. 

She had hit. It wasn't dead center, but she hit the wood. The next four got successively better, with the last one landing almost in the dead center. She had to keep herself from shaking with relief. Looking over to the two, Kun looked her in the eyes for just a moment. 

"Good. Next." They continued to switch out guns, taking five straight shots with each. Out of ten different weapons and thirty different shots, she only made dead center nine times. That being said, though, she only completely missed four times. The rest were somewhere in between. While it wasn't perfect, she hoped it was passable. As she finished, Kun made direct eye contact, speaking. 

"Interesting. You're certainly better than you arrived, although I expected no less from Ten. However, shooting a target is one thing." His gaze shifted. "Taking out someone in the field, that's a whole different thing." Her gut twisted, instinctively screaming at her to get away from him. What was he talking about. Even Ten looked confused. Pulling out his cell phone, Kun held it to his ear. 

"Hello? Yes, please bring her in." A moment later, the doors slid open, revealing a battered, half-awake woman being dragged along by a near ecstatic Hendery. Shoving her onto the ground, the man left her there, moving to stand near his boss. As he moved out of the way, she saw that the woman's hands and feet were tied, making it nearly impossible to walk without someone's assistance. 

"This is a girl we picked up that day before the parking garage incident. Upon our background check, we found that she's been married twice, and recently killed her two daughters in order to go live her dream life with her new boyfriend. He brought her to the show that night." Putting the first handgun in her grasp, he said simply, "Kill her." 

She felt herself stop breathing, her blood stop flowing. Kill someone? She couldn't kill someone. Why tell her about this girl's past? Did he think it would make the job easier? Why wouldn't they just sell her- was it for the sole purpose of this test? What would happen to the woman if she didn't shoot? Hell, what would happen to her? 

"I- I-" She started to stutter. The woman was looking up at her, whispering something. 

"Please... please don't I- I have a family-" 

"You killed your family, you bitch." Hendery laughed. "What's the holdup, Y/N? If it's not her, it could always be you." 

"Alright, fine." Kun started, "I suppose I'll give you the benefit of the doubt. There's no necessity. That being said..." He grabbed Ten by the arm, pulling him into a restraining hold. The man didn't resist, even as Kun drew a concealed gun out of his waistband. 

"You kill her, or I kill Ten." What the fuck? He- he wouldn't do that, right? He wouldn't sacrifice his own men just to prove a point? "I see how you're thinking." Kun interrupted her stream of consciousness. "Don't underestimate me. Now do it." 

"I- I can't." She flinched, covering her head instinctively as a shot rang out. Looking back up, she saw that Kun had shot Ten in the front side of his shoulder. He didn't cry out, but his face was clearly grimacing as blood leaked through his shirt. 

"One last chance." She looked to Ten, whose eyes were silently pleading with her. When she looked at the girl, though, hers were the same. What could she do? She could shoot Kun, but if her aim was off, she could end up shooting Ten, not to mention Hendery would deal with her. It was the same in the opposite scenario. Tears leaking across her face, she finally squinted her eyes shut and pulled the trigger. The woman's skull was her tenth dead-center shot of the day. Kun raised his eyebrows, easily letting Ten go and moving to look at her. 

"Interesting. I was starting to lose faith that you'd actually do it. You pass, we'll keep training you." She was sick to her stomach, but chose to go check on Ten rather than keep staring at the victim of her crime. Rushing to him, she held a hand to the hole in his shoulder, pressing lightly on it. 

"Shit, Ten, I'm so sorry." She cried, trying to stop the blood. He looked down at her, somewhat confused. Looking at his expression, he didn't seem to be in any pain at all. 

"What? Oh! Right." He put his hands under his shirt, pulling it over his head. Stepping back, she saw that he was wearing a minimal black vest, a plastic bag attached to one shoulder. "Kun would never actually shoot me. I'm fine." Stepping back, her mouth was agape. "What? What's wrong? I thought you'd be happy that-" 

"I killed a person! Because I thought you were in danger! I can't believe you'd do that to me!" 

"I was just following orders. We have to be sure that if something happens out there, that-" 

"I don't give a fuck!" She yelled, crying again. "You're despicable! I don't want to train with you anymore! I never want to see any of you again!" 

"Yeah, that's not really an option, kiddo." Kun mentioned. "However, I am going to have you training in knives next, so you won't necessarily have to deal with Ten. Hendery will be assisting you in that field. 

"What?!" Hendery, Ten, and Y/N all seemed equally surprised. 

"Why do I have to babysit the bitch?" Hendery whined. "I didn't even want her here in the first place!" 

"She's proven herself thus far, and you're our best blade wielder. Is there a problem?" There clearly was a problem, but Hendery wasn't going to argue. She was too close to throwing up to counter. "Good. I expect you'll get to it as soon as possible. Don't disappoint me."


	14. Gun to a Knife Fight

"You're never gonna be as good with knives as me, that's just a fact, so I don't know why we're bothering." Hendery grumbled. "That being said, you need to learn close combat, throwing, and how to use longer weapons, then maybe utility." They were now in a different section of the building, although still the training area. There were fewer targets, and more empty space as well as drawers. 

"I... okay." 

"Also, don't talk unless you have to. Your voice is grating." 

"Okay." Hendery put a hand to his face. 

"What did I just say? Stupid bitch." Shaking his head, he pulled out a bunch of knives from a drawer. Handing her a black one, no longer than five inches, he said, "Okay, fight me." 

"...Excuse me?" 

"You heard me, we're gonna fight. If you win, training over! If you lose- which you will- I'll figure out what you're shit at and we can fix it." 

"That doesn't sound like a-" Before she could even finish her sentence, he was in her face, his own knife to her throat. Clicking his tongue, he shook his head. 

"Disappointing. I was expecting you to at least try. I'll give you one more shot." She was shaken by his speed. The entire time she had been observing him, he seemed fairly lazy, always moving slowly, or at the very least nonchalantly. It was evidently an act, something he could switch on and off. Backing up, he deliberately slowed his moves, taking up a defensive stance with the knife on his front hand. She held hers out in front of her as best as she could think of, trying to keep from getting stabbed. 

With Hendery's first rush, she blocked her knife with his. What she didn't realize was that he was basically hitting her knife on purpose to get her of guard. It was honestly an unnecessary move, as she was useless with the blade and would have been off her guard anyway. While she took a split second to recover her thoughts and plan her next move, she already felt a sharp sting on her arm. Looking down, there was a razor thin cut on below her shoulder. Staring at it, eyes wide, she felt the same sting on her left cheek. Finally, she held her hands up, dropping the knife. 

"Stop it!" 

Hendery paused, becoming visible to her again. She was still confused on how he was able to move so fast. He seemed disappointed, sheathing the knife into his waistband in the blink of an eye. 

"Already?" You're no fun." Looking to the clock on the wall, his eyes lit up. "Oh! Sorry, I would actually, y'know, train you, but it's lunch time!" Lunch time? They had a specific time? As far as she had seen, Ten just brought her in and out whenever he felt like it. Then again, she didn't know what to believe from him anymore. As she thought about this, she saw Hendery leaving the room, having to sprint a few steps to keep up with him. He certainly wasn't the gentlemanly type, as he refused to hold the doors or even explain where they were going. 

When they arrived at the kitchen, surprisingly everyone was present. Most of the men were sitting around the counter, aside from Kun, who was cooking. This confused her- as the leader, why was he the one working? Still, she didn't dare to ask any questions. While there had been a quiet buzz of chatter before, now everyone was silent, looking at her. Hendery had a questioning look on his face, before turning to see that she was behind him. 

"Agh, really? You couldn't have just gone to your room or something?" ...Had he really not realized she was following him? Even with her heavy steps? Maybe he wasn't as talented as she thought- at least in some regards. 

"Don't be rude, Hendery, she needs to eat, too." Kun reprimanded him, pulling a skillet off the stove. 

"What happened to your face?" Ten asked, noticing the cut. Not wanting to look at him, she just muttered,

"Nothing." And sat down as far away from both him and Hendery as she could. This thankfully placed her next to WinWin. She hadn't really had a chance to get to know him at all, but he did advocate for her not to be sold, which she appreciated no matter the reasons. The conversation had obviously shifted, meaning they may not have wanted to talk in front of her. This made things incredibly awkward, but she wasn't really in a position to point this out. 

Kun plated everyone's food, setting it down and offering to get her something to drink. Still feeling a bit out of place, she politely requested water, to which he brought her a glass full. The cooking actually looked really good, and upon tasting it, she found that it was more than impressive. As the leader sat down, though, things were going to get more tense than they already were. 

"Hendery, don't ever do that again." Everyone looked up, most mid-chew. 

"I don't know what you're talking about." He said, trying to suppress his ever-present creepy smile. 

"The gash on her face, that was you. And she's been holding stuff strangely- with all due respect, I'm going to ask WinWin to lift up your sleeve." Before she could object, the man did as he was told, revealing the other cut as well. "That's what I thought." He glared at the boy. "I won't have you damaging our property. You forget that if this doesn't work out, we still have to profit off of this little interaction. In addition, if it does, she'll be part of the group, and I refuse to have you throwing temper-tantrums constantly. Do I make myself clear?" 

Hendery looked as though he wanted to kill everyone in the room, but kept his tone smooth and concentrated. 

"Crystal." With that, he got up, heading back towards to door. "I'll be in the throwing range. Send Y/N down when she's ready to stop being a little bitch." Then, he left.


	15. Over the Edge

Hendery begrudgingly taught her how to fight with a knife. While it was incredibly creepy and he didn't know how to keep his hands to himself, she managed to avoid sustaining any severe injuries. That being said, Kun was now regularly checking up on the state of her body. As nice as it seemed, she was fairly certain that it was just a matter of keeping his product intact. 

Not long after her first dinner with the boys, she was visited in her room by Lucas. He had been concerned about her cuts, as well as Hendery's treatment of her as a whole. Ten, who had once been suspicious of Lucas's relationship with their captive, ironically found him to be the only one he could vent to about the topic. 

Y/N was understandably upset with Ten, trying to avoid the topic at all costs. Lucas spent plenty of time trying to convince her that Ten really did have her best interests in mine, but she ignored him. Rather than talk about that, she asked what Kun wanted with him earlier, infinitely more worried about him than Ten. 

He explained that Kun was actually warning him to go a bit easier on Y/N, as he had heard about the incident in his bedroom. Lucas had happily agreed to this, of course, and she had even given him a hug out of relief. He seemed relieved that she didn't hate him as well. He knew he hadn't been treating her properly as a means of showing off to the others, but obviously all was forgiven. 

She was often visited in her room by Lucas. Thankfully there was a lock, which was the least she could ask for since she had no windows. They often ate lunch together, Lucas rambling on about shows or experiences with the guys. It was almost as if he was a normal celebrity. Ten had tried to come to her room a few times, but she never answered. She avoided him as best she could, sitting far away from him for the one meal per day they ate at the same table. 

It was weird not having a phone, too, but she could at least pass the time by training. Once Kun had decided she was adequate with a knife, he made the choice that it was about time to incorporate her into the group- or at least, get final decisions on the matter. He called everyone to the kitchen, as that was the area she was most familiar with, and felt she'd be comfortable.

"Y/N has trained adequately, and I believe she will be a backup asset in the field." Kun began the meeting. "While her skills aren't necessarily outstanding, it can help to have an extra hand. Of course, there's always the concern that she will run away, or worse, somehow alert the authorities to our operation. As she will now be getting a minimal cut, though, I hope that this will not be the case. 

So, I will put it to vote. All in favor of Y/N being incorporated into the group, raise your hands, all those against, keep your hands down." Lucas's hand was the first up, followed by WinWin, and surprisingly Ten. The rest followed until Hendery was the only one remaining. Kun didn't need any more than that, as it was a clear majority. 

"Alright, welcome aboard, Y/N." Kun said. "You all have orders for the day, so I expect to see results. Y/N, you come with me, we have a few formalities to work out." As the other men left the kitchen, Kun brought her to the elevator, taking her up to his personal floor. When they arrived, rather than stay in his office, he brought her towards a side door she had yet to explore. Upon entering, she realized it was his bedroom. 

"You can sit down." He offered, motioning to the bed. Much like the theming for the rest of the building, the area was very dark, with red and black sleek design. The bed was neatly made, matching the clarity of the rest of the space. "I figured this would be more private." She nodded awkwardly. 

"Now, as you've just heard, you'll be joining us from now on. That doesn't mean nothing." He started. "You'l have to get used to a lot of things you're not familiar with." Her mind shot back to the woman, she quickly tried to divert back to Kun's face. He was still making eye contact with her, gauging her reactions. "We'll still be keeping an eye on you, of course. In the meantime, though, I wanted to make you an offer." 

"Uh... an offer? What kind of offer?" 

"Would you like to marry me?" 

She didn't know how to respond. Her eyes were wide and her mouth slightly open, hands involuntarily clenched at her sides. What was he talking about? He didn't know her that well, and he hadn't shown any interest prior. Was it simply because of her body? That couldn't have been the case... could it? There was once upon a time that a random proposal from one of her idols would have been a fanfiction dream come true, but now?

"W-why?" She finally managed to get the words to stumble out of her mouth. 

"It would be profitable for me. You're a pretty woman, and it would be convenient for public appearance. Meaning in the underground of course- I can't have fans knowing I'm involved until long past our prime. It gives you an incentive to stay here, so you're less likely to cause a diminishment on my investment. And of course, I'd treat you well. You could have kids if you'd like, just not at the current moment. I'm obviously very well set in terms of financials, so there's no need to worry there." 

At first, her answer was an obvious no, but she almost found herself considering it. He was a master convincer, and she supposed he did have some points. However, that wasn't how things were supposed to work. It just couldn't be like that, not even in this situation. 

"I don't know if-" Before she got a chance to tell him what she was thinking, YangYang burst into the room, Xiaojun close behind him. 

"Sorry to interrupt- We've got a problem, and it's urgent." 

"What happened?" 

"Hendery." "Lucas." YangYang and Xiaojun spoke at the same time respectively. What could be happening now?


	16. Night Light

“What happened?” Kun had asked calmly. She couldn’t assume it was often that the boys invaded his privacy and entered his personal space, but obviously this was urgent. Still, he was handling it with surprising ease. 

“Lucas.” “Hendery.” They had spoken at the same time. They looked to each other, trying to silently figure out who was meant to speak first, how to deal with this as quickly as possible. Standing, Kun gestured to Y/N. 

“You go with Xiaojun and handle whatever is happening with Lucas. I’ll proceed with YangYang to Hendery. I assume we’ll be able to work this out accordingly.” He looked her in the eyes again. He was trusting her with this situation. He knew there would be enough confusion that she may have a chance to slip away. Although she was with Xiaojun, she was fairly confident in her ability to evade him. Would she take it?

In an instant, Kun and YangYang were gone as the remaining boy attempted to get her attention. Looking up, jarred, she followed as he led her out of the room towards the medical bay. 

“Can you fill me in on what’s happening?” She asked, having to sprint every few steps to keep up with him. 

“Hendery is missing. We have security footage suggesting he’s left the building, but we have no idea where he may be headed." Xiaojun started. "Something's upset him, but we have no means of contacting him- he's not answering his phone, and we can't track it. He's either removed the tracking and ignored our calls, or he's simply powered it off." 

"What about Lucas?" She asked. 

"Critical condition. We're not sure what happened, as... he can't wake up to tell us right now. That being said, I have some suspicions." He said somberly. Her gaze was wide and gut wrenching as she heard this. What could have been so bad that he was unable to wake up? She wouldn't have to wait long to find out as they reached the medical bay. 

Walking towards the back of the room, Lucas was on the bed closest to the door of the back room. He had an IV drip in one arm, and bandages on his legs. Mostly undressed, she could see that he was covered in cuts. They weren't just any cuts, though, they were deep, life-threatening gashes. 

"They brought him here while we came to get you. The wounds aren't all bandaged yet." Looking at him, she started having flashbacks to the woman in the basement. This path she was on was covered in blood. First her own, then that woman's, now Lucas. Who was next? It would end with hers, of that she was sure. 

"Y/N!" Xiaojun shouted, clearly not the first time he was truing to get her attention. 

"O-oh, I-" 

"Look, I get it." He started, breathing in. "But I'm gonna need your help with this. I can't get to everything in time." She nodded her head shakily. "Alright, hand me the hydrogen peroxide." 

They spent almost an hour trying to repair Lucas's body. For the smaller cuts, bandages were sufficient, but the bigger ones requires sticking. They quite literally covered his whole body. At first glance, it looks as though he had gone through a boat propeller. They were too methodical, though. His hands, his feet, and his neck up were all untouched. They all followed a similar direction, as well. 

Every time she looked at his face throughout the process, her nausea was renewed. His eyes were shut and his lips slightly parted, and yet there was an air of pain surrounding him. Even in his forced sleep, she sensed that he could feel the gashes, as well as potentially the emotional pain of whatever he'd been through. Once they finally finished, Xiaojun brought her back into the office, laying down on one bed as she lay on the other. It had been surprisingly tiring work, but Lucas was stable. 

"Hendery had to have done this." She muttered, visuals of the cuts still fresh in her mind. 

"I just don't understand why he would ever do something like that." Xiaojun commented, suffering evident in his voice. "We've always been a team. He and Lucas have never had any problems." Sighing, he continued. "That being said, the security footage is missing from the left stairwell near the bottom floor. Both the physical and digital copies have seemingly vanished. That's..." His voice hitched. "That's where we found him." 

"When we find him, we can figure it out." She finally said, eyelids heavy. Xiaojun seemed to be just as tired. 

"Yeah, I.." He yawned, trying to keep talking. "I guess." As they both lay in silence, looking for things to say, they eventually both fell asleep. Of course, her momentary rest couldn't last for long. She found herself caught in nightmares, even her subconscious mind riddled by guilt and terror. She found it difficult to escape, stuck in a barrier within sleepless rest. At some point, though, she found herself sitting straight up, sweating and breathing heavily. 

Looking around the office, she saw that the lights were out and it was dark. She could just barely see the area around her, and Xiaojun's frame lying on his back across from her. It wasn't real... None of it was real. She tried to calm herself down, breath hitching as she pushed the dreams from her mind. 

"You can't sleep either?" He whispered from across, surprising her a bit. 

"Yeah. Maybe we should just leave."

"No, it's night time now. There's no point. Kun is handling the situation, we should just try and rest while we still can." 

"Oh..." She thought for a moment, before offering, "Well, I don't wanna bother you, I can just go back to my room and-" 

"No!" He shouted quickly, half sitting up as well. Even in the dim light, she could see that his eyes were wider than usual, face slightly distraught. Was he worried about her escaping, or... was it something else? "I, uh..." He cleared his throat, lying back down and facing the wall. "I don't like sleeping in the dark by myself." Oh. She hadn't been expecting that. 

"I, uh- Sorry I asked, I didn't mean-" She coughed awkwardly. "I'll stay here, it's fine." There was a long awkward silence as she sat. Now that she was willing to go back to sleep, she was scared to reenter the nightmares. Lucas's body was still haunting her, and it was all the more real as it sat in the next room over. She wasn't sure if he had noticed the tension, or was experiencing himself, but he asked,

"Do you wanna come sleep over here?" 

"...Yeah."


	17. Pre-Show Decorating

“What happened?” Kun had asked calmly. She couldn’t assume it was often that the boys invaded his privacy and entered his personal space, but obviously this was urgent. Still, he was handling it with surprising ease. 

“Lucas.” “Hendery.” They had spoken at the same time. They looked to each other, trying to silently figure out who was meant to speak first, how to deal with this as quickly as possible. Standing, Kun gestured to Y/N. 

“You go with Xiaojun and handle whatever is happening with Lucas. I’ll proceed with YangYang to Hendery. I assume we’ll be able to work this out accordingly.” He looked her in the eyes again. He was trusting her with this situation. He knew there would be enough confusion that she may have a chance to slip away. Although she was with Xiaojun, she was fairly confident in her ability to evade him. Would she take it?

In an instant, Kun and YangYang were gone as the remaining boy attempted to get her attention. Looking up, jarred, she followed as he led her out of the room towards the medical bay. 

“Can you fill me in on what’s happening?” She asked, having to sprint every few steps to keep up with him. 

“Hendery is missing. We have security footage suggesting he’s left the building, but we have no idea where he may be headed." Xiaojun started. "Something's upset him, but we have no means of contacting him- he's not answering his phone, and we can't track it. He's either removed the tracking and ignored our calls, or he's simply powered it off." 

"What about Lucas?" She asked. 

"Critical condition. We're not sure what happened, as... he can't wake up to tell us right now. That being said, I have some suspicions." He said somberly. Her gaze was wide and gut wrenching as she heard this. What could have been so bad that he was unable to wake up? She wouldn't have to wait long to find out as they reached the medical bay. 

Walking towards the back of the room, Lucas was on the bed closest to the door of the back room. He had an IV drip in one arm, and bandages on his legs. Mostly undressed, she could see that he was covered in cuts. They weren't just any cuts, though, they were deep, life-threatening gashes. 

"They brought him here while we came to get you. The wounds aren't all bandaged yet." Looking at him, she started having flashbacks to the woman in the basement. This path she was on was covered in blood. First her own, then that woman's, now Lucas. Who was next? It would end with hers, of that she was sure. 

"Y/N!" Xiaojun shouted, clearly not the first time he was truing to get her attention. 

"O-oh, I-" 

"Look, I get it." He started, breathing in. "But I'm gonna need your help with this. I can't get to everything in time." She nodded her head shakily. "Alright, hand me the hydrogen peroxide." 

They spent almost an hour trying to repair Lucas's body. For the smaller cuts, bandages were sufficient, but the bigger ones requires sticking. They quite literally covered his whole body. At first glance, it looks as though he had gone through a boat propeller. They were too methodical, though. His hands, his feet, and his neck up were all untouched. They all followed a similar direction, as well. 

Every time she looked at his face throughout the process, her nausea was renewed. His eyes were shut and his lips slightly parted, and yet there was an air of pain surrounding him. Even in his forced sleep, she sensed that he could feel the gashes, as well as potentially the emotional pain of whatever he'd been through. Once they finally finished, Xiaojun brought her back into the office, laying down on one bed as she lay on the other. It had been surprisingly tiring work, but Lucas was stable. 

"Hendery had to have done this." She muttered, visuals of the cuts still fresh in her mind. 

"I just don't understand why he would ever do something like that." Xiaojun commented, suffering evident in his voice. "We've always been a team. He and Lucas have never had any problems." Sighing, he continued. "That being said, the security footage is missing from the left stairwell near the bottom floor. Both the physical and digital copies have seemingly vanished. That's..." His voice hitched. "That's where we found him." 

"When we find him, we can figure it out." She finally said, eyelids heavy. Xiaojun seemed to be just as tired. 

"Yeah, I.." He yawned, trying to keep talking. "I guess." As they both lay in silence, looking for things to say, they eventually both fell asleep. Of course, her momentary rest couldn't last for long. She found herself caught in nightmares, even her subconscious mind riddled by guilt and terror. She found it difficult to escape, stuck in a barrier within sleepless rest. At some point, though, she found herself sitting straight up, sweating and breathing heavily. 

Looking around the office, she saw that the lights were out and it was dark. She could just barely see the area around her, and Xiaojun's frame lying on his back across from her. It wasn't real... None of it was real. She tried to calm herself down, breath hitching as she pushed the dreams from her mind. 

"You can't sleep either?" He whispered from across, surprising her a bit. 

"Yeah. Maybe we should just leave."

"No, it's night time now. There's no point. Kun is handling the situation, we should just try and rest while we still can." 

"Oh..." She thought for a moment, before offering, "Well, I don't wanna bother you, I can just go back to my room and-" 

"No!" He shouted quickly, half sitting up as well. Even in the dim light, she could see that his eyes were wider than usual, face slightly distraught. Was he worried about her escaping, or... was it something else? "I, uh..." He cleared his throat, lying back down and facing the wall. "I don't like sleeping in the dark by myself." Oh. She hadn't been expecting that. 

"I, uh- Sorry I asked, I didn't mean-" She coughed awkwardly. "I'll stay here, it's fine." There was a long awkward silence as she sat. Now that she was willing to go back to sleep, she was scared to reenter the nightmares. Lucas's body was still haunting her, and it was all the more real as it sat in the next room over. She wasn't sure if he had noticed the tension, or was experiencing himself, but he asked,

"Do you wanna come sleep over here?" 

"...Yeah."


	18. Tragic Flaws

Exactly three days passed before Ten came back. The others had told her that it was a sort of game for him. He hunted people like the rich hunted animals. It wasn't necessarily difficult, but he liked to take his time. Apparently, in the rare occasions when a catch escapes from them, Ten is the one to go retrieve it. Of course, hunting Hendery would be a bit different. With no way to track him and only the killings to follow, she wasn't sure exactly how he planned on accomplishing his promise. Still, each person she spoke to was completely unwavering in their certainty that he would pull through. 

Two things remained constant that worried her across these days. First, the killing spree continued, each morning resulting in a new somber announcement regarding which large stadium or auditorium had been plagued with bodies. Second, Lucas had yet to wake up. While Xiaojun assured her that his vitals were still stable, he had not risen to consciousness. She could tell that the work was weighing on the medic, but all she could do was watch Lucas for small increments of time as he caught up on rest. They ended up in that same doctor's office together on multiple occasions, but both chose not to mention it. 

On the evening of the third day, Ten returned. He walked in the door unannounced, not bothering to tell anyone he had come back or what he had found. He simply walked into the kitchen, putting a few pieces of bread in the toaster and waiting as they cooked. Y/N was the first to discover him as she came upstairs to grab Xiaojun something to eat. As acute as his senses were, he heard her walk in, even though she froze. Turning to look at her, he stayed silent. 

"Hello." She spoke, trying to test the waters. She wasn't sure exactly where his head was at. 

"Hello." He responded. Neither moved, both on the defensive. She stared into the darkness of his eyes, wondering what exactly he was thinking. Did he still want to make amends, or was he now furious, long past any sympathy? She had no way of knowing, no way of telling- until he answered for her.

"I'm sorry." That said it all. He didn't say for what, or explain himself, or try and make an excuse. He also didn't beg at her feet or make a long speech. That was it, he was sorry, take it or leave it. It summed up everything she had known about him into two simple words, a microcosm of his entire state of being. 

"I'm sorry, too." She answered, realizing that she meant it. Things were too complicated now to worry about little things. he had no idea what he was going through, what had dragged him into this way of living, but she was in no place to judge him. His expression slowly changed from his regular, stone face to one filled with tears and regret. He strode around the counter as quickly as he could to wrap his arms around her, setting his chin on her shoulder so their heads were side by side. She could feel his body shaking a bit, but didn't mention it. After a few seconds, though, a new voice startled her. 

"Am I... interrupting something?" Breaking away from Ten and looking to the other end of the room, she saw YangYang staring at them awkwardly. Ten quickly turned to clean up his face as Y/N spoke to the new arrival. 

"No, you're fine. What's up?"

"Kun got a notification that the garage opened. He wanted me to come see if Ten was back or..." 

"Or if I was trying to leave?" She finished. 

"...Yeah. Anyway, we should probably go see him." Ten, now composed again, looked over. 

"Oh. Should I bring Hendery?" YangYang's jaw practically dropped. 

"You found him?!" 

"Yeah, he's in the car." 

"Just sitting there?" 

"No, I have him tied up. Didn't want him slipping off, you know?" YangYang didn't even know what to make of that. 

"You know what, on second thought, I'll tell everyone to meet in the conference room. You go and get him." 

Ten took Y/N with him to retrieve their once-colleague. Whatever she had been expecting, this wasn't it. He brought her out to a parked black sedan, popping the trunk to reveal a very awake, very tied-up, very angry Hendery. As soon as his gaze fell on Y/N, his eyes shifted from annoyed and frustrated to completely crazy. His hands and feet were bound as one would normally see, but his knees, elbows, and mouth were all restrained as well. She looked to Ten with a bit of terror. 

"What?" He shrugged. "I got tired of him cursing me out." Ten picked up his thin frame effortlessly despite his own seemingly fragile body. She could clearly tell who was the stronger of the two, which was surprising, considering that knife-fighting was likely more exerting. They brought him to the board room, where everyone was already waiting. Ten wasted no time shoving him into the room and against the table, slamming his hip into the edge. It clearly hurt, but not a sound escaped Hendery's throat. 

"Oh my God!" WinWin stood to look at him, being the first to say anything. "You actually found him!" 

"That's enough of that." Kun interrupted, a bit taken aback by Hendery's state. "Ten, if you'd be so kind as to untie him, he can take his seat." Eyes narrowing, Ten reluctantly complied in regards to most of the bonds. He undid the restraints on the man's feet, knees, elbows, and mouth, leaving his hands tied behind his back. Hendery shot him a glare as he moved to Kun's righthand chair, forced to kick it out from under the table in order to sit down. After swallowing a few times to get the feeling back in his mouth, he asked, 

"So what exactly the fuck do you all think you're doing?" 

"We might ask you the same thing." The leader cut in. "You make an attempt on the life of one of our own, steal half a million dollars in funds, take off on a killing spree with no contact or warning, and then expect us to treat you with the same civility and respect as we always have?" With this, his face turned to a sort of irritated confusion. 

"Excuse me? I left to go find the person that tried to kill Lucas. He had broken into the building somehow and I watched him as he was leaving the stairwell. I didn't keep contact because I thought that if he had been able to breach our defenses, he could tap my phone as well." 

"Why should we believe you?" Ten asked with a sneer. "You've never been the vigilante justice type." 

"Because this person is clearly after us!" Hendery snarled, raising his voice. "Are you stupid? First they try and kill Lucas, and then they ruin the venue for our next concert! Someone knows what we're doing and is trying to fuck with us, maybe even kill all of us! How can you sit here with me tied up when that person is still out there?" 

"And the money?" WinWin asked, stealing Ten's place in the hot seat.

"I don't know anything about the money, I've never been involved in that. We're wasting time." They all looked to Kun, silently summing up the situation. Would he believe Hendery? Would he throw the man in jail to rot, or worse? Not only that, bt she wasn't sure she'd be pleased with his retaliation to her and Ten should he be freed. 

"Fine."


	19. Spiral

So Kun had made up his mind to trust Hendery. This meant that the situation was much more urgent than they had expected. With someone after them, there was a chance that someone had highly sensitive information on them, which they couldn't afford. If allegations even rose, they could be in prison for months. Victims would surface- they always do. 

"We need to find that killer. Quickly." Kun directed. "Since Hendery has been tracking them already, it's best if he's one of the ones out on the hunt. Maybe Ten should go as well, he's good at that." Ten and Hendery looked to each other, a spark of anger practically lighting the air between them on fire. 

"That's fine, Ten can stay here." Hendery said with a decent amount of conviction. "I'll take Y/N instead." Everyone looked completely aghast at this. 

"Why would you do that?" Xiaojun asked, the first time he'd ever completely interrupted a conversation. "She's a complete newbie, and we need to make sure she doesn't split." He amended, trying not to seem frantic. 

"What are you talking about?" He said cooly. "She's a trained professional. At least, I'm confident in the skills that I've taught her. Not so sure about Ten." 

"She can handle a gun." Ten admitted begrudgingly. 

"See? Nothing to worry about! Bag ourselves a shithead, call it a day." Kun looked to Y/N. 

"How do you feel about that?" She looked at Hendery. She hated it. She hated it so, so much, and she was still 90% convinced that he was responsible for at least some of the mishaps. But finding who did that to Lucas... that was a chance she couldn't afford to lose. She would put a bullet in the head of whoever dared to try and kill the sweetest man in the entire base. 

"I'll do it." 

"Good, then get strapped and let's hit the road. I have to go grab something, you go down to the range. I'll meet you at the car." Hendery didn't even give her a chance to say anything more as he dragged her out of the room to get ready. Kun dismissed Xiaojun to go assist Lucas. They briefly saw Y/N and Hendery walk back through as they left, which gave Kun the peace of mind to go back to his office. With that, WinWin and YangYang were the only ones left in the conference room. 

WinWin sat on his laptop as YangYang sat on his phone. Occasionally, there was some clicking or the shift of a chair, but they sat in relative silence. Finally, YangYang just sighed. 

"Do you ever feel like we don't do enough?" 

"I mean, I handle the financials, so... no, not really." YangYang's gaze shifted awkwardly. 

"Oh... yeah. But like... in the field." 

"Hmm?"

"Ten's just so good at everything. Kun trusts him with his life in any scenario. I feel like if he were put in the same situation with me, he wouldn't do that. He'd fear for his life. That makes me feel... I don't know, inadequate? Hendery might be a little crazy, but you have to admit he's powerful. Without Xiaojun, we couldn't function on a day-to-day basis. Hell, he's patched me up more times than I can count. Even Lucas handles the girls, which has gotta be more work than he'd expected. Plus, he's the one that makes sure the managers aren't suspicious of us." Shaking his head, he looked to WinWin again. 

"And you're in 127, that's double the effort. I'm just..." He sat his chin on his hand. "I'm just kind of the backup guy. Grab that girl, drive that car, you know... I'm scared Y/N is gonna take my place, to be honest. For one she's a girl." He laughed breathily. "But even just now, Hendery declined Ten's help in exchange for hers. That's never happened to me. I'm there just in case. I honestly think I'm just here because I'm part of the band." 

"Interesting." WinWin suddenly said. 

"...Interesting?" Glancing up, he amended, 

"Sorry, I was listening, but I just managed to get in contact with one of the banks our funds were removed from. The reason I didn't get the notification is because the money was transferred out in person. I didn't account for that. I've just requested the security footage so- Speak of the devil, we've got it." YangYang stood to walk behind him, looking at the computer screen as he pulled it up. 

"Is that...?" He asked, leaning down. 

"Hendery." 

"But... I thought he said he had no idea what happened to the money?" 

"He did. But we can't jump to conclusions, there could be a reason for this. He has no other ties to the murders, aside from the first location being our next venue." Brows angling, YangYang thought about it. 

"Do you have the briefing documents from all of Kun's meetings on there?"

"Of course. Why?" 

"Pull them up." WinWin did as he was told, opening the news headlines. YangYang also pulled something up on his phone, checking between each thing. "Oh... oh my God." 

"What? What is it?" He turned so that WinWin could see his phone. He was cross-referencing the list of murder locations to their tour schedule. It matched up perfectly. 

"Not only that, though." He continued as WinWin's eyes widened. "I thought I noticed something before, but- how many girls were killed in each murder?"

"The first one was seven, uh..." He clicked through the slides. "The second was seven as well... they're all seven." 

"Is there a list of fatalities or victims? Anything with names on it?" YangYang asked, dreading the answer. After a longer pause, he received it. 

"Yes." 

"Pull it up." Hand on WinWin's chair, he leaned over again, reading through a few. Lillian, Willow, Yves... "Go to the next one." He complied. Again, the names were strangely familiar. Xiara, Kayla... Sick to his stomach, he forced himself to sit down in order to maintain his balance. 

"What? What's wrong?" 

"The names- the initials match ours. Even Y/N's. In every case. I have no idea how anyone could manage that." 

"It's a metaphor." WinWin said suddenly, starting to understand. "That's why he took the 500k. He doesn't need the money, that's how much we would have earned if..."

"If we had sold Y/N." They both said simultaneously. 

"Y/N!" YangYang realized suddenly. "She's out there alone with him! If this is what we think it is, she's not safe."

"We have to get everyone, quickly." WinWin agreed. They didn't have much time.


	20. Flashing Lights

Once they had gotten a hold of Kun, they frantically tried to explain the situation. He wasn't really one for such rushed interaction as a businessman, but he too understood the urgency. He notified them that Ten had already left, suspicious of Hendery and his actions. With Hendery and Y/N as the targets and Lucas out of commission, they just needed to go find Xiaojun. 

They all got into the elevator, pressing the button for the medical bay. They waited, wondering if the stairs would have been more efficient. Still, it was too late now. Stepping out of the tiny room, they entered into the medical bay. Aside from the light coming out from under the office door, the entire room was dark. 

"We should keep it down," Kun muttered under his breath. "I assume Lucas is in REM or something similar if Xiaojun took the time to turn off the lights. We should get him and get moving as quickly as possible." The other two agreed, letting him lead the way to the back. Slowly he cracked the door slightly, whispering, "Xiaojun?" He received no response. 

"Did he go back to his bedroom?" WinWin mumbled.

"There's no way, he hasn't left Lucas's side for a second if he could help it." Kun opened the door a bit more, feeling as if it was blocked by something. Giving it a hard shove, he managed to push through so that there was enough room to enter. All three boys filed in, looking at the beds. Well, he wasn't sleeping. 

"Where could he be?" The leader wondered aloud. "This doesn't make sense." YangYang moved to check the closet to the left of the door- that is, until he found that he didn't have to. Lying on the ground, the object that had been blocking the door, had been Xiaojun. 

His eyes were half closed, clearly disoriented from blunt trauma. All four of his limbs were bent the opposite direction from which they were supposed to turn, and there was blood leaking from the corner of his mouth. As the other members heard his gasp, they saw the same sight. 

"Oh my God!" WinWin yelled, kneeling down by his side and quickly laying his head to the man's chest. After a moment, he shouted, "He's still breathing!" Even Kun seemed shaken up as both of the boys looked to him, clearly wondering what to do. 

"Y-you should get him into one of the medical beds, get him an IV. Quickly. They complied, picking him up, thankful that he wasn't awake lest they have to hear his pain. 

"Could you flip the light on?" WinWin asked, voice clearly distraught. 

"Yeah..." They moved to where they knew the bed next to Lucas to be, setting the broken man down with a heavy breath. Just as Kun turned the light on, though, they had wished he hadn't. Whoever had done this to Xiaojun had gotten to Lucas too. 

Each of Lucas's arms and legs had a long metal pole through it, clearly having been shoved through with brute force. There was blood all over the floor, and it had been tracking across the room on their shoes without them even knowing it. Upon closer inspection, Kun realized that they were bone stints- the objects that would have been used to fix Xiaojun's broken limbs. Not only that, but there was a larger one driven through the center of the left side of his chest. 

The scene was a disaster. Even worse, they were now almost certain that it was Hendery who was responsible. They had trusted him too quickly, hadn't bothered to find out what was angering. Worse, they had sent their newest, most fragile member to her death with him. Kun was the most devastated. As leader, this was his responsibility, his fault. He was staring at Lucas, eyes still closed peacefully as he had been for days on end. His blood still pooling on the floor. This had happened maybe fifteen minutes ago. That's all it would have taken- for him to notice fifteen minutes earlier. 

He was used to blood. They were all used to blood. He had killed plenty of people, seen women kidnapped, mutilated, tortured, broken, forced into submission- he had never seen his men spill each others' blood before, though. It was unthinkable in this business, for people so close to turn on each other. And yet it happened all the time. How had he not seen it coming? He was naive to assume that Y/N's presence would leave the group's dynamic untouched. But to kill people from their own group? 

"Kun." WinWin jarred him out of his thoughts as he turned and tried to compose himself. 

"Yes?" 

"We just received a notification. Our accounts have been frozen, and-" He cleared his throat. "Someone's breached security. There's someone in the building with us." 

Meanwhile, Hendery was now exactly where he intended to be. Sitting in the all-too-familiar black sedan with a completely unsuspecting Y/N. He tried his best to keep from completely bursting out into laughter, thinking of all the fun little toys he had hidden in the center console. What would he do it with? He had plenty of choices. Of course, some were more efficient than others, but he had nothing to worry about. They had no reason to go talk to Xiaojun, and certainly no point in checking up on Lucas while the medic was attending to him. They wouldn't find out about those little incidents until Y/N was already strung up on the top of the building. 

Pulling off onto a dirt road in a surrounding wooded area, Hendery brought the car to a stop. Turning off the ignition but leaving the headlights on, he stepped out, gesturing for her to do the same. He had slipped a single serrated machete into his waistband, eager to pull it out. Still, he was patient. 

"What are we doing here?" She asked, looking around with confusion. "I thought we were catching the killer?" 

"Oh, there's no need to catch him, sweetheart, he's here." 

"Here? Is that why we stopped?" He gave her a moment to realize, noting the exact moment that it occurred to her. Her whole form shrank down as the fear began to take hold. "W-wait, you mean-" 

"You so slow, beautiful. Your pretty body all cut up will make up for it, though, hm?" 

"Hendery, y-you don't want to do this-" He pulled the knife out of his pants, tilting his head. 

"Why shouldn't I? You show up here, you take my attention, you put my reputation at stake, you challenge my decisions?" Laughing, he continued, "You're quite the bitch, I will say, but you're too much effort. If you had been just a bit easier, I would have had my fun, gotten bored, and let you off scot free. But no, you have to be stubborn, don't you Y/N." She was backed up against the vehicle now. If she turned to run, he would definitely catch her- as much as she hated to admit it, he was undoubtedly more agile. 

"Which is why I killed Lucas," He whispered, leaning in as his arms trapped her against the metal from either side. "It's why I killed Xiaojun," he smiled as her face fell with every word. "And it's why I'm going to kill you." She shut her eyes as she was blinded by a white light. She didn't feel any pain. Was this death? It didn't hurt as much as she expected. If it was indeed death, though, why did she still feel Hendery's frame above her? 

"Wong Kunhang, you are under arrest under allegations of harassment, assault, battery, kidnapping, rape, murder, and human trafficking. You're colleagues have already been taken into custody, including the runaway Chittaphon Leechaiyapornkul. We implore that you do not attempt to resist arrest. Your rights will be read to you." Opening her eyes, she saw that the blinding white light was not death, or heaven. It was a police headlight. 

There had to have been at least four cruisers surrounding them, barely leaving an inch for escape. Hendery's face was coated in a calm, intensely scary rage as he begrudgingly stepped back, hands in the air. She was in shock as some faceless uniform grabbed her, pulling her away and saying, 

"Don't worry, you're safe now."


	21. Red Tape

Click.

"Please state your name." 

"Y/N."

"Full name." 

"Y/N... (M/N) L/N." It was cold. The chair beneath her was like ice to her thighs and the metal dug into her skin like claws of guilt. Her eyes were darting left and right, nervous as to what she was meant to do in this situation. The man seated in front of her was holding what looked to be a recording device, already rolling. 

"Miss Y/N. Where were you..." His voice was grating. It was annoying her quite a bit. Either that, or maybe she was just in a state of sensory overload. Regardless, she had a quickly growing headache, and the lights weren't helping. She was currently being held for questioning in a small police station. While she wasn't in any trouble, they did need her preliminary testimony before they could continue on with WayV's detention, trial, and conviction. 

She answered. She had gotten so used to answering questions she didn't want to answer. What business of this man's was it who she was? What she was doing? Where she had gone? Once he had established that she was at the WayV concert on the night that she had been kidnapped, he asked an associate to bring a record. When it was given to him, she noted that it was a missing persons case file. 

"Now, Miss Y/N- You've been off the grid for quite a while now. Mind telling me where you went? Start from the beginning, please." She swallowed hard. She had a choice to make. She could tell them everything right now. What they had done to her. Getting kidnapped in the bathroom, getting taken to their base, their attempts at selling her, the cuts and bruises- it would all be so difficult, and yet... so easy. She could win justice. 

"W-well, I finished the concert and started to leave the building." He nodded, writing as she spoke. "So I went to the bathroom-" 

"The ones at the front entrance or on the ground-level deck?" She knew which was the more suspicious answer, but she also wasn't sure what exactly they knew. 

"Uh, I think the second one, it was empty." He nodded, allowing her to continue. "I was in there for a while, maybe an hour? The concert was super tiring, a-and I like being alone." Gulping again, her hands started to become sweaty. This was a dangerous game. "As I was sitting there, I-I realized how boring my life was, h-how much I hated it. So I ran away." His head tilted slightly in confusion. This was not the answer he had been expecting. 

"You ran away?" 

"Y-yes. The first week I was just walking around alone, wondering what I was doing with my life. I slept under a few bridges, met a few people. I got a ride out into that area where you ended up finding me, I-I had been staying in a middle-aged lady's shed, a-and-" 

"Do you remember her name?" 

"Huh?" 

"The lady. Do you remember her name?" Y/N shook her head. 

"She didn't know I was there, I just... wanted a roof." 

"How did you eat?" 

"People gave me money, I mostly just ate fast food." 

"Your clothes look fairly nice. Have you been wearing them this whole time?" She shook her head slightly. 

"I- I had a change of clothes for the concert, just in case, so I've been taking turns washing each outfit at the coin laundry every few days."

"Where did you get detergent?"

"If I couldn't borrow it I'd just use water." He was asking far too many detailed questions for her liking. She was going to have to remember all of this- every detail. 

"You were found in the woods with Wong Kun-Hang. How do you know him?" She breathed deeply, face twitching at the name. Still, she couldn't afford to lose her focus now. 

"Y-you mean Hendery?"

"I believe that's his stage name, yes." 

"I- I know him from WayV, obviously. I was at the concert." 

"Yes, but why were you in the forest speaking with each other?"

"I- I was trying to find a way to move, a bus station or something, get out of town and find a job, I just... I just ran into him and we started talking." 

"What were you talking about?" Shit, this is where things would get really complicated. If they asked Hendery the same question and they gave different answers, they were both screwed. She would have been fine before, but now that she was lying to a member of law enforcement, she could get in serious trouble too. She didn't even know why she was protecting them. Stupid- but it was too late. 

"I... I don't remember." She put a hand to her head, only half having to feign the pain in her expression. The man's brows angled, clearly annoyed. 

"You don't remember?" 

"N...no." Sighing, he clicked the tape off. They were off the record, now. 

"Look, Y/N. I know you're scared. And I know you used to be a fan of WayV. But these are serious allegations. I don't know what reason you would have to stand in the way of criminal justice, but if for some reason you have some... strange case of Stockholm, or something, you need to do the right thing." He tried to make eye contact, but she was looking to the ground. 

"Just admit that you were kidnapped by WayV, and we just happened to find you at the right moment. I can restart the recording, you can tell the truth, and we can go from there." Her eyes widened just a fraction, and she prayed he couldn't see the flush in her cheeks. What was she doing? What the fuck was she doing? 

"With all due respect, sir, this feels like coercion. We are off the record for questioning, as well. Both are illegal. I would like to have a lawyer present before answering any more questions." Anger flared up in his eyes, but he controlled himself, standing. 

"If that's your choice..."


	22. Visiting Hours

After being released from her initial questioning, Y/N immediately took to Twitter. While she no longer had her original phone, (she had told the officers she lost it- in reality, WayV had confiscated it from her), they offered her a temporary replacement. She knew she would have to get a new one soon, as the likelihood of this one being monitored was almost a guarantee- it was the only way they would have offered to give her a new phone. Still, for now, she had no choice. What she was searching for wasn't suspicious, anyway. 

The first thing she did was type "WayV" into the search bars. The results that came up were expected, but unsettling. 

WayV concert

WayV Lucas

WayV postponed

WayV is over

What could this mean? Had SM released a statement? What did the general public know? She found it almost impossible to fathom that they had managed to keep the allegations completely under wraps, so what was the excuse this time? Heart twisting in tension, she clicked on the first tag, clicking through until she came to an official article. 

WayV Tour Postponed Due to Unforeseen Complications

She began to read the content of the body, skimming to the paragraphs that caught her interest. Most of it was corporate bullshit, but she managed to get the gist based on various lines. 

"Unfortunately, Wong Yukhei of WayV, commonly known as Lucas, had suffered a mild injury. While we believe he will be in good health shortly, WayV will be postponing their tour until further notice. We thank you for your concern and your patience in this matter, and we will keep all of the WayZenNi updated as much as we are able." 

So they weren't planning on releasing the extent of Lucas's injuries? The last she had seen him, he was covered in those gashes, but he was still very stably alive. Hendery had said he killed the man, along with Xiaojun, but... that couldn't have been the case. He wouldn't have had time to incapacitate Xiaojun and completely kill Lucas in the few seconds she had been in the basement. He had just been saying it to cause her pain in her final moments. 

Still, the article was right about one thing- Lucas wouldn't be performing any time soon. It was clear that they intended to keep all of the allegations under wraps. In the event that WayV was proven innocent, they needed to be able to put them back on stage with no controversy. If any of this got out, it was over. Still, it was fairly easy to demand an unbiased jury, so the people who did act as jurors wouldn't be involved afterwards. 

At this, she started clicking through fan tweets. Some were nicer than others, and each one weighed on her like a mountain. 

I'm so sorry bbysss, get better soon! :(

Haha I bet Lucas got hit by a truck or something

This is so lame lmao when has sm evr relaesed a statement this fast?? it's for sure a coverup

Y/N forced herself to take a deep breath. No matter the scandal, injury, or announcement, there would always be people who made crazy wild guesses for the purposes of humor or sensationalism. There was no way any of these people knew what was really going on, right? Forcing herself to pry her eyes off the thousands of tweets, she chose to look at a few other things. If her phone was being monitored, it may be suspicious that her first actions was just to search WayV on Twitter. 

Her next decision was to try and visit them. She knew where the detention center was, and they were technically just in holding until a temporary decision was made, so she had the right- if they accepted. Her guess was that they were all being held separately, although she wasn't sure if they'd be tried that way as well. Walking into the station, she told the man at the front desk of her intentions. 

"I'd like to speak to the group of men that was brought in last night?" He looked up at her. 

"Which one?" 

"Are they detained separately?" He looked to his computer, clicking a few things. 

"Not all of them. Not enough room. They're all in smaller groups."

"Who's with who?" He raised an eyebrow. 

"Look, lady, I can't just hand out names. Either you know who you want to speak to or you leave before you get into trouble." She held up a hand in defense. 

"Sorry, sorry." So who did she want to talk to? She wanted to ask for Lucas, but she assumed he had been taken to urgent care or a hospital of some sort. The chances that he was here were slim to none, and producing an incorrect name would be more than suspicious at this point. 

"Ten." She finally said. Seeing the look on his face, she amended, "Chittaphon Leechaiyapornkul." She was embarrassed at how flawlessly she could produce it, but she was a WayV fan, after all. His gaze changed from confusion to understanding. 

"Sorry. The nicknames are written on here, his is just... kind of off the page." 

"I get it." She watched as he stood, keys jingling as he unlocked the door to the back room. 

"Hold on, I'll ask them if they want to see you." He disappeared for a moment, leaving her to wonder what their response would be. Maybe Ten had some kind of plan, maybe they had already escaped? It wasn't long before he returned. 

"We're good to go." Leading her back, he explained, "We can't take them out of the holding cells, but you can talk from the hallway. Try not to bother the other inmates. It's fine if you want to talk to the rest of the group, but don't force them to do anything." She nodded. "I have to work the desk, but don't try anything. I can see you on the security cameras." She thanked him profusely, only daring to look through the bars once he had turned the corner. 

Looking into the cell, relief flooded her body. Although it didn't look the most comfortable, she saw Kun and Ten both looking intently at her, seemingly surprised at her presence. She convinced herself that it wasn't a dream, that they were sitting right in front of her. She had gotten so used to being around them twenty four hours a day that being separated seemed ethereal. 

"Oh, thank God." She wrapped her hands around the bars, leaning in. Kun and Ten glanced to each other, and then back to her. Finally, the leader muttered, 

"Keep it down. The cameras don't have audio capabilities, but if we talk too loud the officer might hear us." 

"What are you doing here?" Ten asked, basically destroying any semblance of official-ness that Kun had been trying to imbue. "Aren't you like, ratting us out to the cops?" Putting a hand to the back of her head, she laughed awkwardly. 

"Yeah, about that..." She explained what she had told them during her questioning, earning several insane looks from the both of them. 

"You're kidding." Ten stuttered, "You really care?" 

"That seems illogical." Kun stated quite bluntly. "You now put yourself in a position of perjury, as well as aiding and abetting should we be convicted. The only risk you run by admitting our situation is that we walk free and retaliate, which would be highly unlikely in that situation. It's frankly a stupid decision." Glaring, she mentioned, 

"I can always walk back out there and tell the truth." Sighing, she continued, "Look, we need to find a way to bust you out." 

"Impossible. Breaking out is practically admitting guilt." Kun stated. "We'd have to stay on the run forever, our music careers would be over, and our entire business network would shatter. Not only that, but we're more easily recognizable than any random criminal." At this, Y/N was starting to feel hopeless again. She knew he was right... Still, what could she do about it?

"Well what are we supposed to do?" 

"Earn our freedom."


	23. Planning for Action

"That's impossible." She finally stated as Kun began explaining his plan. "If they took you into custody, they obviously have some proof." 

"That's not necessarily true." He argued. 

"Even if they don't, they had an arrest warrant, so there's definitely adequate suspicion. It won't be long before they have a full search warrant and completely pick apart your base." Kun sighed. 

"I suppose you're right. If only we had someone on the outside who could do the things we needed done. I can't necessarily do anything from in prison." She knew what he was saying. Kun wanted her to follow his orders, insinuating that if she did so, WayV would walk free. Did she even want to do so, though? She had another chance. She could walk out of here right now and-

"I'm on the outside." She found herself saying. His eyes glinted with a look she hadn't ever seen from him, a mix of mischief and malice? The corners of his mouth just barely upturned by a fraction of a millimeter, such that she almost thought she imagined it. 

"How convenient. Would you be willing to handle a few things for me?" 

"I just said I was out here, didn't I?" 

"I'd like verbal confirmation, if that's alright."

"Okay, I'll do it." 

"Say, 'I agree to complete the tasks that you, Kun, assign, until a verdict is reached in regards to the cases of yourself and your colleagues'." She stared at him. 

"You're kidding." 

"You want to help, don't you?" Sighing, she tapped her foot in annoyance, repeating in a snarky tone. 

"I agree to complete the tasks that you, Kun, assign, until a verdict is reached in regards to the cases of yourself and your dumbass colleagues." 

"Good enough. Now, to start." Her glance shifted in surprise. 

"Right now?" 

"Time is money, and we're currently losing both. Now, to start, you need to clear out the facility, but not suspiciously so. Leave the bedrooms, board room, etcetera. We'll need quick, discreet, major renovations to the basement in order to hide the jail cells, so instead of going through the trouble, we'll put concrete into the doorway and create a fake room so that the elevator shaft doesn't seem suspicious." 

"Wait, you-" She started to ask, already overwhelmed, but he continued. 

"If you go into my bedroom, you'll find a removable area of carpet under the left side of the desk. Pull it up and press the panel underneath, it'll unlock one of my desk drawers. In the pile of business cards, you'll find a contractor listed. Call the number, explain what we need done. He doesn't ask questions, mention my name and he'll be cool. It should be done before tomorrow evening, make sure you have everything you need from there, it won't be accessible for a while." 

"Hold on!" She interrupted. "I can't remember all of this!" 

"Record it- delete it later, of course." 

"I can't, the police issued me this phone, it's definitely being monitored." 

"Get a new one as quickly as possible. We can't afford to have any information slip. If you fall under suspicion, we're dead in the water." Moving on, he started, "In that same drawer, you'll find the contact information for three separate lawyers. Again, call them, explain, see if they're willing to defend us. Then, pick up the yellow notepad. Skip to page 13, you'll find the PIN code for WinWin's safe. Take it to his bedroom, remove all his bank information. I need you to open new accounts, no more than 200k in each account. Make sure you open the accounts under different branching affiliates as well as buildings. Try not to be on tape too often, it's suspicious. If you can, use a fake name. If you don't have time, your real name is fine." This was becoming quite a lot to handle. 

"Past that, we need to agree on a backstory. Remember this very clearly, because if we get our wires crossed, we're screwed." 

"I already told them that I ran into you after I ran away from home." Brow furrowing, Kun sighed. 

"We can work with that. Here's the story: you go back to the interviewer crying, saying that you feel bad for lying and you want to come clean. He obviously thinks that you're willing to confess to our crimes, so he immediately sets up a meeting. You explain that you're actually a childhood friend of mine, and you were purposely running to us as a means of finding a place to stay. You quickly fall in love with Lucas and the two of you begin dating. 

Side note, you have a stalker of an ex-boyfriend. You don't know his real name, as you dated very briefly until you became suspicious of his motives and background. Once he began stalking you, he found out about your new relationship, and targeted Lucas. As he did so, he realized our identities, and began committing murders as a way of scaring you, hence the connections to our names and such. Hendery, unaware of the situation because of the speed of events, believed that you committed these actions and went out to confront you. He was armed only in self defense. From there, we were arrested. Understand?" 

Her head was spinning with the amount of information Kun expected her to recall. The contractors, the lawyers, the backstory, it was all so convoluted. She trusted his experience, but she was getting herself into some deep shit. In addition, the fact that she had to pretend to be dating a now dead man was sending her stomach into turns. 

"What about the boyfriend's details?" 

"Those are up to you. It's not suspicious that we don't know the details of your love life, you and I have been out of contact for a while. Just make sure you're consistent in regards to it. In addition, please relay this to all other members of the party, quickly- before the guard comes and escorts you out." 

"But I-" 

"No time for sentimentalities, go. We'll see you soon. In the meantime, I'll let them know that you've arranged for a lawyer. I trust you, okay?" She looked to him, and then to Ten, both staring at her intently with just a glimmer of hope. Sighing, she walked away, searching each cell for the others. They must have spread them out enough that someone could hear should they start conspiring. 

The first ones she came across were WinWin and YangYang. They were muttering to each other, clearly planning something that she couldn't quite make out. Coughing loudly, they turned to her, eyes widening twice as drastically as her first acquaintances. They both started talking at the same time, asking what she was doing there. She explained very briefly of her situation. 

"I was one hundred percent convinced we were done for." WinWin commented. 

"Thanks for your faith." 

"I mean we did kidnap you-" 

"Yes, I'm aware. Listen, I don't have much time." She explained to those two, recounting the story very briefly to be sure they were aware of the important details. They agreed quickly, begging her to do whatever Kun said. They were fully convinced in his ability. Once she was done with them, she said quick goodbyes. Looking around, she couldn't fund Xiaojun or Lucas. They had to be alive... they just had to. She couldn't live with herself if her naivety had gotten them killed. Unable to locate them, she assumed they were in a hospital somewhere. 

That only left one person to talk to...


	24. Intricacies of Man

"That's impossible." She finally stated as Kun began explaining his plan. "If they took you into custody, they obviously have some proof." 

"That's not necessarily true." He argued. 

"Even if they don't, they had an arrest warrant, so there's definitely adequate suspicion. It won't be long before they have a full search warrant and completely pick apart your base." Kun sighed. 

"I suppose you're right. If only we had someone on the outside who could do the things we needed done. I can't necessarily do anything from in prison." She knew what he was saying. Kun wanted her to follow his orders, insinuating that if she did so, WayV would walk free. Did she even want to do so, though? She had another chance. She could walk out of here right now and-

"I'm on the outside." She found herself saying. His eyes glinted with a look she hadn't ever seen from him, a mix of mischief and malice? The corners of his mouth just barely upturned by a fraction of a millimeter, such that she almost thought she imagined it. 

"How convenient. Would you be willing to handle a few things for me?" 

"I just said I was out here, didn't I?" 

"I'd like verbal confirmation, if that's alright."

"Okay, I'll do it." 

"Say, 'I agree to complete the tasks that you, Kun, assign, until a verdict is reached in regards to the cases of yourself and your colleagues'." She stared at him. 

"You're kidding." 

"You want to help, don't you?" Sighing, she tapped her foot in annoyance, repeating in a snarky tone. 

"I agree to complete the tasks that you, Kun, assign, until a verdict is reached in regards to the cases of yourself and your dumbass colleagues." 

"Good enough. Now, to start." Her glance shifted in surprise. 

"Right now?" 

"Time is money, and we're currently losing both. Now, to start, you need to clear out the facility, but not suspiciously so. Leave the bedrooms, board room, etcetera. We'll need quick, discreet, major renovations to the basement in order to hide the jail cells, so instead of going through the trouble, we'll put concrete into the doorway and create a fake room so that the elevator shaft doesn't seem suspicious." 

"Wait, you-" She started to ask, already overwhelmed, but he continued. 

"If you go into my bedroom, you'll find a removable area of carpet under the left side of the desk. Pull it up and press the panel underneath, it'll unlock one of my desk drawers. In the pile of business cards, you'll find a contractor listed. Call the number, explain what we need done. He doesn't ask questions, mention my name and he'll be cool. It should be done before tomorrow evening, make sure you have everything you need from there, it won't be accessible for a while." 

"Hold on!" She interrupted. "I can't remember all of this!" 

"Record it- delete it later, of course." 

"I can't, the police issued me this phone, it's definitely being monitored." 

"Get a new one as quickly as possible. We can't afford to have any information slip. If you fall under suspicion, we're dead in the water." Moving on, he started, "In that same drawer, you'll find the contact information for three separate lawyers. Again, call them, explain, see if they're willing to defend us. Then, pick up the yellow notepad. Skip to page 13, you'll find the PIN code for WinWin's safe. Take it to his bedroom, remove all his bank information. I need you to open new accounts, no more than 200k in each account. Make sure you open the accounts under different branching affiliates as well as buildings. Try not to be on tape too often, it's suspicious. If you can, use a fake name. If you don't have time, your real name is fine." This was becoming quite a lot to handle. 

"Past that, we need to agree on a backstory. Remember this very clearly, because if we get our wires crossed, we're screwed." 

"I already told them that I ran into you after I ran away from home." Brow furrowing, Kun sighed. 

"We can work with that. Here's the story: you go back to the interviewer crying, saying that you feel bad for lying and you want to come clean. He obviously thinks that you're willing to confess to our crimes, so he immediately sets up a meeting. You explain that you're actually a childhood friend of mine, and you were purposely running to us as a means of finding a place to stay. You quickly fall in love with Lucas and the two of you begin dating. 

Side note, you have a stalker of an ex-boyfriend. You don't know his real name, as you dated very briefly until you became suspicious of his motives and background. Once he began stalking you, he found out about your new relationship, and targeted Lucas. As he did so, he realized our identities, and began committing murders as a way of scaring you, hence the connections to our names and such. Hendery, unaware of the situation because of the speed of events, believed that you committed these actions and went out to confront you. He was armed only in self defense. From there, we were arrested. Understand?" 

Her head was spinning with the amount of information Kun expected her to recall. The contractors, the lawyers, the backstory, it was all so convoluted. She trusted his experience, but she was getting herself into some deep shit. In addition, the fact that she had to pretend to be dating a now dead man was sending her stomach into turns. 

"What about the boyfriend's details?" 

"Those are up to you. It's not suspicious that we don't know the details of your love life, you and I have been out of contact for a while. Just make sure you're consistent in regards to it. In addition, please relay this to all other members of the party, quickly- before the guard comes and escorts you out." 

"But I-" 

"No time for sentimentalities, go. We'll see you soon. In the meantime, I'll let them know that you've arranged for a lawyer. I trust you, okay?" She looked to him, and then to Ten, both staring at her intently with just a glimmer of hope. Sighing, she walked away, searching each cell for the others. They must have spread them out enough that someone could hear should they start conspiring. 

The first ones she came across were WinWin and YangYang. They were muttering to each other, clearly planning something that she couldn't quite make out. Coughing loudly, they turned to her, eyes widening twice as drastically as her first acquaintances. They both started talking at the same time, asking what she was doing there. She explained very briefly of her situation. 

"I was one hundred percent convinced we were done for." WinWin commented. 

"Thanks for your faith." 

"I mean we did kidnap you-" 

"Yes, I'm aware. Listen, I don't have much time." She explained to those two, recounting the story very briefly to be sure they were aware of the important details. They agreed quickly, begging her to do whatever Kun said. They were fully convinced in his ability. Once she was done with them, she said quick goodbyes. Looking around, she couldn't fund Xiaojun or Lucas. They had to be alive... they just had to. She couldn't live with herself if her naivety had gotten them killed. Unable to locate them, she assumed they were in a hospital somewhere. 

That only left one person to talk to...


	25. Remote Advocate

"8 p.m.? Alright, sounds good." She hung up the phone with the contractor, thankful that he had answered so quickly. Now that it was becoming evening, she had plenty of time to clear anything important out from the basement before they arrived to seal the location up. Just in case, though, she instructed them to make sure they knew exactly where she was before pouring the cement. She didn't want to be trapped. 

She had spent the earlier day moving money around, as banks were some of the first businesses to close on any given day. Thankfully it all went off without a hitch. People ask surprisingly few questions about where these enormous sums of money come from. She herself was utterly perplexed by the sheer volume of liquid funds they had on hand, as well as the fact that Kun had trusted her with it. She supposed it was his last hope, but still. 

She took a few careful hours to package Lucas's things into cardboard boxes, making sure that nothing would be damaged. All of the girls' clothing stayed, as the area would be sealed for a long while. She felt bad tearing his room apart, but if he wanted his stuff anytime soon, she'd have to remove it from the basement. It almost took her longer to load things onto the elevator and take it to her bedroom than the actual packaging took. She figured he wouldn't mind her holding onto it until he was fully recovered. 

Once the contractors showed up, they spoke to her, confirmed their plans, and discreetly began sealing the bottom floor. While it would take a day or two to completely set, the pouring would only cost a few hours. There was no way they could come up with a search warrant that fast, so she wasn't too troubled. That left one major task. 

The part she was dreading... The lawyers. She needed to find someone willing to defend all 7 men in court well enough that they would walk completely free, both physically and in terms of allegations. They could not afford a scandal. Anything of the sort and their careers could be over, ruining the underground business as well. That kind of pressure- it was immeasurable, no matter the amount of money that was being offered.

The first call she made, the woman who picked up was clearly a secretary. Y/N asked to speak to the lawyer directly, stating to say that it was a call from Kun, but the woman responded that they'd get back to her as soon as possible. He was clearly running a reputable business, whether or not Kun knew it. Regardless, she didn't have time to wait. She called the next lawyer. 

This one was quite different. The first time she called, she received no answer. Confused, she called a second time, double checking the number to make sure she had punched it in correctly. On this round, a cracking, male voice picked up. 

"Hello?"

"Hello sir, I-" 

"I'm not interested in whatever you're selling. Good day-" 

"Wait!" She tried to exclaim, but the phone was hung up. Growing irritated, she called the number a third time, keying in "*67" beforehand to hide her caller ID. The same voice answered, clearly also as irritated as she. 

"Sir, I'm not a telemarketer." 

"I don't-" 

"I'm calling for Kun." She slid in quickly before he had the chance to argue. The line went silent for a moment, probably as he tried to figure out whether or not she could be lying. 

"Oh yeah? What does he want?"

"He's in a bit of trouble." She started to explain. 

"Ah, figures. What's going on?" She told him about the arrest, leaving out the specific charges and mentioning that Kun had requested he defend them in court. 

"No need to beat around the bush, kiddo, I know about his little... side job. I'm curious as to why you're calling, though. Are all of them being detained?" 

"Yes."

"And how do you know him?" Her eyes flit to the side even though she knew no one would be standing there. 

"They kidnapped me." Another silence. 

"Interesting. And now you're coming to me for help defending them in court?" 

"I don't need to explain myself to you. Will you do it or not?" The man laughed, throat sounding dry regardless of the static. 

"You're quite the curious little girl, aren't you? I would love to act as their attorney, we've been friends for a long time. Unfortunately, I'm in a bit of a bind. I don't think I'd be able to make it." 

"Bind?" 

"House arrest. Long story, no need to bore you with the details. The point it, I have no way of showing up to court, so unfortunately, I don't think that'll be possible." Her heart dropped. She was beginning to run out of options. She only had one number left to call, and she didn't know what she would do if she couldn't follow Kun's instructions. "It's a shame, really, I'm the best criminal defense lawyer on the face of the Earth." He left off with. 

"I... I guess that's fine." She had no choice but to be fine with it. "I can try and find someone." 

"Unless..." Unless? He was clearly trying to bait her into asking the question, as Kun did earlier. It must have been an effective tactic of convincing someone, though, because she fell for it a second time. 

"Unless what?" 

"Unless you let me build the case, and then you present it." He couldn't see it, but her mouth was strewn slightly ajar, heart stopping. 

"P-present the case?" 

"Sure. You'd need to be a little more confident, but if it's my work, I'm sure it'll be doable. Hell, you can even keep a bluetooth in if you want me to guide you through the process." 

"I- I can't- I'm not a lawyer, I-" 

"You don't have to be a practicing lawyer with a business to defend someone in court. Of course, they're generally better at it, but there's no rule. You could have Ronald McDonald defend you if you could get your hands on him." This was insane. There was no way she could stand up in court in front of hundreds of people and present a legal case based around saving her kidnappers. It was so insane that she was just willing enough...

"I'll do it."


	26. Vendetta

"Miss Y/N, we've been informed by the defendants that... you are in charge of organizing their legal committee?" 

"Yes, that's right." She said over the phone. She had since bought a new one, of course, with Kun's money, but there was no reason the court or the police department needed that information. Speaking one the old one, they were trying to sort out WayV's affairs. She was unsure as to whether they had any evidence, but it seemed like they were expecting an open and shut case. 

"So, you'll be seeing to finding them a lawyer? You have the option between a private firm or an appointed attorney." 

"I'm handling it." 

"Understood. Could you please put the court in contact with them as soon as possible so that we may begin proceedings?" Apparently as celebrities they had the right to a much earlier trial than she had expected. 

"All information will be traveling through me until further notice." 

"I see..." The person on the phone seemed concerned with this. "I suppose we'll work the majority of it out in person with the shared evidence meeting. How do they intend to plead?" 

"Not guilty." The secretary paused. 

"Sorry, I think you're breaking up..." 

"I said that Kun, Ten, WinWin, YangYang, Hendery," she took a breath. "Lucas and Xioajun are all pleading not guilty." There was a silence. 

"I... We'll recount this at the meeting. Your date with the other attorney is in two weeks. Please make sure yours is present. If not, you concede your right to see their case evidence. Understood?" She agreed, thanked the person, and then hung up the phone. Two weeks. She had two weeks to put together a legal case. The lawyer Kun had recommended mentioned that he would work on the case, but not to call him again until a search had been through the house. If they found something suspicious, it could throw off their entire plan. 

As expected, they soon arrived. It had actually taken them longer than she predicted to come up with a search warrant. Even more to her disdain, the interviewer had showed up. Was he some sort of detective? It would be difficult to convince him of anything new should she slip... She'd have to watch her step. 

"Ah. Miss Y/N." He said as she answered the door. "I see you completely disregarded my advice to leave this place." 

"Yes, sir. There's a reason I left home, and I find no troubles with residing here, besides it being lonely, that is." 

"I see. Well, we have a search warrant," He stated bluntly, holding up a paper. "Do you mind if we take a look around?" She had no choice, obviously. It was a bitter, fake politeness. 

"Of course. Would you like me to give you a tour while your-" she looked to the bulky, uniformed men behind him. "Colleagues search more thoroughly?" 

"That would be appreciated, thank you." She took him in towards the elevator, mentioning to the other men that she'd prefer if they didn't break any locks. She made sure that they knew if something was locked, they could come ask her for the keys. 

"So, this is the elevator, although we have staircases on either side of the building." Taking him in, they started at the top floor. She showcased the conference room, the offices, the bedrooms, the kitchen- it was all very mundane. He actually touched very little, assumedly leaving it to his men to deal with. As she was explaining the pleasantries generally associated with dinner in their household, he cut in. 

"Where were those two killed?" Her voice caught. 

"Excuse me?" 

"The two. The other ones- show me that, please?" 

"They're... they're not dead." He tilted his head in a mocking, pondering way. 

"Oh? We may have heard something from different sources, I suppose. If I recall, the big one was dead undoubtedly, and the thin one had been in the ICU for a few days now. I doubt they're keeping them alive, unless the detained ones have managed to send a hospital fund." 

"Where are they keeping Xiaojun? What hospital?" She asked, panicking. They had the money, she just had to make sure he wasn't taken off life support or pain medications. 

"Sorry, hun, I'm not allowed to tell you that. You can request that information from the police station if you see fit." Asshole- she knew he was allowed to tell her. He just didn't want to. He was quickly making an emery of her, clearly aggravated that she wasn't cooperating. He believed that she was a liar, and he planned on proving it. 

"I see. I'll do so as quickly as possible then." 

"I'd like to see the locations, please." He demanded a second time. It seemed like there was no way around it. taking him to the far staircase, he pointed out a still-stained patch of concrete. 

"This is where Lucas was attacked by my ex-boyfriend. He was covered in cuts and remained unconscious for days after. Xiaojun was in charge of taking care of him, as he had sufficient medical knowledge." 

"I see. And did the big one die here?" She didn't like how this man called Lucas. He had a name. Several, actually. His disrespect was rubbing her the wrong way. 

"No. He was taken to the medical bay to be taken care of, as I said." 

"Let's see that, then." They took the elevator back up to the medical bay, somewhere that she hadn't been since she'd heard. Turning on the light, her stomach dropped at the sight. Having been detained so quickly, no one had cleaned up. She'd been avoiding it. She could easily say that it was for crime scene reasons, but in reality she was scared. 

It smelled awful, like rust and mold, and there were clearly two blood covered beds by the far wall. Walking over, he looked to them. 

"Who was in which bed?" She knew that Lucas had been situated in the one near the wall, so she just assumed that it was still the case. It was also the bed with more blood on it. 

"That was Lucas's. That one's Xiaojun's. He wasn't in it for long, though." The man took a few more looks around, quickly popping into the back room for a moment. 

"Interesting. I only have one more request of you." Gesturing back towards the door, he mentioned, "Let's visit the basement, shall we?" She couldn't show the fear on her face as he said this. She had been hoping they would all just ignore it. Could she distract him? No, that was suspicious. The best she could do is hope he bought the new wall. With a hard swallow, she nodded, leading him to the elevator and pressing the lowest button, feet tapping nervously as it descended. 

"So, what's down there?" 

"Just... just storage. We don't use it for anything, really." 

"Hmm. Seems wasteful to have a whole floor for such little purpose. Is it as large as those above?" 

"God, no. Not even close. At this point, we're underground, so there's no need to keep the same size room. We just had to edit the foundation a bit." She was just spewing bullshit out of her mouth, hoping it stuck. He looked to the door expectingly as the tiny room came to a halt, doors opening. 

They were both surprised by the sight. She was expecting the sight and smell of newly poured concrete, a dead giveaway. Instead, she was met with a minuscule space, basically a glorified broom closet. It smelled slightly damp, and the walls were dirty and cracking. There were even a few cleaning utensils and tools strewn about, many laying on a rusty shelf to one side. It looked as if all these had been down here forever. 

"Hmm." The man hummed in confusion as he stepped in, laying a hand on the wall. "Has this room ever been anything else?" 

"Not since Kun moved in, no. I can't speak for earlier generations." He paused another moment, then picked up his phone. Dialing a number quickly, he spoke in a mutter. 

"I'm leaving. Make sure to check the basement again, something doesn't sit well with me. Oh? You- excellent, I'll regroup with you later." Hanging up, he turned to his tour guide, completely aware that she had heard. "Thank you so much, Miss Y/N, we're sorry for the inconvenience this may have caused you. I'm sure I'll be seeing you very soon? I assume you plan to testify as a witness." Breathing in, she mentioned, 

"Actually, I plan to be their attorney." She knew it wasn't wise to let them know her plan, but she couldn't help it. She relished the look on his face as it shifted from confusion, to realization, to anger. Then, he plastered on that disgusting clown smile again. 

"How intriguing. I do hope you know what you're doing. In that case, I most definitely will be catching up with you soon." 

"I'll see you to the door?" 

"Yes, thank you."


	27. Discovery

'Discovery, in the law of common law jurisdictions, is a pre-trial procedure in a lawsuit in which each party, through the law of civil procedure, can obtain evidence from the other party or parties by means of discovery devices such as interrogatories, requests for production of documents, requests for admissions, and depositions. Discovery can be obtained from non-parties using subpoenas. When a discovery request is objected to, the requesting party may seek the assistance of the court by filing a motion to compel discovery.'

This wasn't going to be like the court cases on TV. Y/N's remote lawyer had warned her of that. In the past, prosecutors could guard evidence from defendants. Defendants couldn’t force prosecutors to hand over witness statements or even reveal the names of their witnesses. Now the view that advance disclosure will promote fairer trials had taken hold—if defense attorneys know ahead of time what to expect, they can better defend their clients.

Surprise evidence may produce fine drama, but it leads to poor justice. Unlike prosecutors, defendants can’t call on police agencies to help them investigate and respond to evidence they find out about for the first time at trial. Thus, every jurisdiction has discovery rules requiring prosecutors to disclose evidence to defendants prior to trial.

Thankfully, this worked to Y/N's advantage. Her job was not exclusively to gather evidence, but rather to defend against the charges placed against WayV. She'd find out what those were today. She foresaw no problem in retrieving evidence from the other lawyer, as they were likely confident in their case. They had the police on their side, but that was okay. They could make it. Plus, if the other lawyer failed to provide proper evidence during discovery, they could be fined or even get the case invalidated.

Checking in, she put her own name as that of the lawyer. Obviously the person checking her in had no idea how strange it was, as they just continued on with their paperwork. She had written "self-employed" under firm, which would just have to do. She was directed to the proper meeting room, being the first to arrive. Placing in her bluetooth earbud, she thought of an ample way to cover it, warning her new associate not to say anything unless absolutely necessary so that she might be able to focus. It was only a few minutes before a few more people walked in. 

The first was a tall woman in a blue suit, sitting at the head of the table. She greeted Y/N quite stoically, but not in a rude fashion. She began organizing her own papers as a third woman walked in, in a black skirt and jacket. Shesat down across from Y/N, looking her over for a moment before greeting the both of them. The taller woman started speaking. 

"Alright. This is obviously the method of depositions and interrogatories. The defendant and prosecution will discuss the evidence against leveraged against these 7 men, shorthand 'WayV'. You may refer to the group as such, but if leveraging evidence against the specific, we ask that you state their name, birth-given or stage. I assume we're all working under these presumptions." At least she'd have the advantage with the names, however irrelevant it may be. 

"The prosecution may start with any evidence put forward against the defense. The defense is not required to offer any rebuttals at this time, but if additional information is necessary, you may request it now. If the prosecution denies, you can drop the motion, or put in a request through the court. Is everyone understood?" The two women nodded, the prosecutor evidently ready to begin. The glint in her eyes unsettled Y/N. Lawyers were so awful...

"Miss... Y/N? Was it? I admire your bravery in acting as a lawyer with no education or experience!" The jab caused her teeth to clench in anger. Why was everyone acting as though she was completely unqualified?

"Don't let her grind your gears, kid," the voice in her headphone muttered. "Just stick to the plan." She took a deep breath, forcing herself to focus. Everything about the woman was grating- her stature, her voice, her glare, the pity and smug victory painted on her face. Still, Y/N listened to her associate. 

"Anyway," the prosecution continued. "We plan on putting forth three core arguments, although each has several types of witnesses and supporting points." Witnesses? How could they possibly have witnesses? Unless...one of the girls escaped? She said nothing as the lady continued. 

"Our first block is based on the police witnesses and personal experience in the assault of Y/N L/N by Wong Kun-Hang, stage name Hendery." Okay, that wasn't fantastic, but she could defend against that. They had a solid backstory. Her real lawyer knew this as well, letting it go. 

"Understood. Do you plan to call my testimony?" 

"Not initially. We're considering it depending on the other testimonies and your rebuttals. We have no requirement to give you a straight answer." 

"Uh huh..." She said, slightly concerned with that last statement. Still, she indicated that she could go on.

"Our second block is based on physical evidence retrieved from your household at an earlier date." 

"May I ask what specific pieces of evidence?" 

"I will mention that there are several articles of clothing and possessions, clearly of females. We're planning on having them analyzed for DNA or residue." That could be bad. She wasn't sure exactly what the woman had found, but she had to come up with an explanation if it came back with DNA other than hers. 

"What's your final sector?" 

"Our last block is made up of several character and lay witnesses in regards to the suspected kidnappings." 

"Ask if they're suspected victims." The man in her headset said quickly. 

"Are they suspected to be victims?" She asked, parroting his comment. 

"I have no comment on such." 

"They have to be." The man grumbled. "At least the character witnesses. I'm not sure how we plan on handling that." Y/N and the woman worked out a few more points. Every time the woman asked about her rebuttals, the remote lawyer indicated for her to abstain. It was tedious, and the monitor said nothing until the very end. 

"If you're in need of any more information, you may submit a request up to 24 hours before the court date." Handing them both sheets of paper, gesturing to a written portion. "This is the date. Miss Y/N, you are permitted to make contact with the defendants under the pretense of going over the case. If you are suspected of conspiracy, you could be tried for it as well." They went over a few more rights and procedures before they all stood from the table, Y/N standing a bit late. 

"I wish you the best in your cases." She stated cooly, giving them room to file out. She needed to talk to the layer, and then she needed to talk to WayV. This was going to be tough. 


	28. Relay

Y/N was promised complete privacy as she met with "the defendants" before the trial. It had been a few days, and she had triple checked that she had accomplished everything Kun required of her. They were brought in, thankfully unhandcuffed, into a remote office as an offshoot of the detention center. As each met her eyes, they had different reactions, but said nothing until their accompanying monitors were gone. 

Once they were alone, Ten was the first to move, immediately getting up from his seat to give her a hug. It took her by surprise, and the others looked on with a bit of awkwardness. In a mostly soft voice, he spoke first. 

"It's nice to see you again." He started. "I'm sorry about... about Lucas." This again... she didn't want to think about it. She couldn't believe he was dead. She just couldn't. 

"When will we be speaking to the lawyer?" Kun asked, already honing in on the logistical aspect of their little reunion. 

"Yeah, about that..." She looked down. His face shifted several times as she explained her situation. The voicemail lawyer, the house arrest, the choice she was given. Finally, everyone was staring in awe. 

"You're our lawyer?" YangYang asked. "That's so cool!" 

"That's so awful." Hendery commented, catching her off guard. She honestly assumed that he was in there out of necessity, not choice. Although, it did make sense that he didn't like the setup. She held his life in her hands, and if she could find away to get just him fucked over, she would do it in a heartbeat. 

"Hendery." Kun warned, looking over. They obviously hadn't had a chance to speak since the arrest, which would cause some tension to say the least. Once he was sure the man had settled down, no matter the hatred pouring from his eyes, he turned back to Y/N. 

"Have you been through discovery?" 

"Yes." 

"Summarize." 

"They have three categories of evidence: bystander witnesses, physical evidence, and victim witnesses." 

"That's impossible." He commented idly. "I can't think of a scenario in which even a single person we've dealt had made their way back and into the hands of a prosecutor that quickly." 

"The prosecution says otherwise." Was all Y/N could comment. She didn't know what to tell him. 

"You've been working with him on this?" She assumed Kun was talking about the real lawyer. 

"Yeah, we... we think we've got it. It'll be quite the move to pull, but just trust us." 

"I do." He said with no hesitation. Looking to the left and right for a moment, he sighed. "With all due respect, none of us want to do this right now, and it seems like there's not much we can do. We all know the cover story, we'll all get to hear each other in court, so..." Clearing his throat awkwardly, he asked, "Maybe we just talk?" She nodded. 

"I'd like that. I think we all have a bit of explaining to do." There was a long pause as everyone waited for someone to start. 

"Well?" Kun asked. 

"I think we all want to hear an explanation from the same person." Ten snarled, looking over to the other side of the room. Hendery glared back, asking, 

"Do we have a problem?" 

"What kind of a question is that? Of course we have a problem. You killed two of my best friends!" He shouted, clearly willing to get violent much more quickly than she had expected. 

"And stole half a million dollars." WinWin added. 

"And killed a bunch of girls!" 

"You think I was just doing it for fun?" He yelled back, standing threateningly as well. He was clearly weaker than he had been in the previous days, even since she'd seen him in the cell. 

"Well what the fuck kind of reason would you have?" Ten was screaming at this point, tears practically forming at the corners of his eyes. She'd seen him emotional one time before, but this... this was something different. This was some sort of self-destructive absolute passion. "Lucas is dead and Xiaojun is close. They never did anything to deserve that, especially not from you! When you nearly cut your finger off playing with those stupid knives, XIaojun is the one that fixed it! Who's the one that covered us after we got into gang fights? Xioajun. He'd fix us up no matter what. Lucas would do anything for you because he respected you, and respected all of us! We may not have been a perfect group, and the things we're doing might not be conventional, but they were good men and you're a fucking demon for killing them!" He said, shaking at the knees as if he was going to fall over. 

"I bet you would have killed us too if you could! I wish I had done it before you'd gotten the chance! Then Lucas and Xiaojun would be alive! I hope you die, I hope you die, I hope you die!" He cried, sinking to the ground as he put his head in his hands, still muttering the phrase over and over. I hope you die. Just die. Hendery looked shocked as Ten sat on the floor sobbing, YangYang now having taken the liberty to try and comfort him, saying something that she couldn't quiet hear.

"You have no idea what I've had to go through!" Hendery shouted down at him out of nowhere, voice cracking in fury. WinWin rose to try and calm him down, muttering something in his ear. "No, really! You're naive and stupid if you think I'd recklessly make decisions like that for no reason! I thought we knew each other, huh? You want to call these people your best friends and then treat me like shit? Is that what it's come to?" His eyes wide in some sort of crazed state, he lurched forward to drag Ten up off the ground by his collar, practically choking him for a moment. 

"You disgust me. You're just a fucking child that wants mommy and daddy to go away, you don't know how the world works. If you even had a sliver of the knowledge that I did, you would have killed them too. Everyone wants the big guys gone until they have to deal with the consequences." 

"Hey! Break it up!" YangYang was trying to separate them as Hendery slapped Ten clear across the face, causing his head to snap to the side. He put a fingertip to it, feeling it for just a moment, before jumping forward as well to knee him in the gut. 

"Stop!" Y/N was begging as it turned into an all-out fist fight between the two. She wouldn't be surprised if they started biting and pulling each other's hair before long. Finally, she was able to push Ten back by the chest as WinWin dragged Hendery away by the arm. 

"Don't blame me when the consequences come." Hendery spat as Ten looked over Y/N's shoulder at him. 

"We're giving you the chance to explain." YangYang begged him, trying to be reasonable as Kun looked on silently. "Just tell us what's going on and we can all get past this." 

"I'm done explaining." Hendery snarled. "I'll explain in court." And with that, he fell to the ground, eyes shut. Rushing to his side, WinWin put a hand to his neck. 

"I think he's just exhausted. He hasn't eaten since we were arrested." 

"How is he alive?" Y/N asked, still a little shaken. Ten clearly was as well, as she could feel his heartbeat beneath her hand, racing at a thousand miles an hour. 

"Sheer willpower, I guess. It's wearing on him. We'd better hope this gets solved quickly..."


	29. Reader Insert

The trial date was not a pleasant one. The entire night before and the morning of, her stomach was turning violently, causing her to avoid eating any breakfast. She knew it wasn't good for her, but it couldn't be helped. If she threw up in court, she could be ejected, which is the last thing she needed. She called the real lawyer as soon as possible to make sure their connection was adequate. 

This would be the hardest part for her. She needed to do everything he told her down to the tiniest details. WayV's lives hung in the balance. She hadn't been able to arrange a meeting with them before the events, so she would just have to hope they were prepared for the things to come. The last she'd heard, Hendery had been revived, but he was still refusing to eat, only accepting a slight drink of water after basically being forced to ingest it. They had put him on an IV for a few hours, but he was still weak. 

She only realized a few hours before the trial that she didn't have anything to wear. Going into her room, she noticed that most of the clothes Lucas had provided to her were jeans, sweatpants, and t-shirts. None of those were really quite appropriate for such a serious occasion. The women's wardrobe downstairs were sealed up, which left her with only one dress out and available for her to use... the blue one. 

With a vile taste in her mouth, she pulled it on, looking at herself in the mirror as she recollected the last time she'd worn it. Thankfully, it had been cleaned since, but it still carried awful connotations. There was no choice, she had to suffer. Putting on sensible makeup and gathering her things, she made her way to the courtroom. When she arrived, there were only a few minutes left before the trial. This was her intention. While it may have paid off to be earlier, she knew she wouldn't be able to stomach it. 

She was seated near the band at the front of the room, although she was meant to be active during the trial, so she didn't really have a chance to talk to them. She glanced over once, feeling all of their eyes sliding over her form, giving her the chance to see Kun mouth a slight, 'you'll be fine'. At least, that's what she saw. Before she knew it, opening statements were underway. 

"Your honor," the lawyer from the discovery period stated boldly. She was already annoying Y/N, to the point where she had to clench her fists out of sight to keep from seeming stressed. "I intend to prove that these five men, as well as their late and hospitalized associates, are guilty of the charges against them. These include harassment, assault, battery, kidnapping, rape, murder, and human trafficking, as was read to them along with their rights upon their arrest." The judge nodded, accepting this as an adequate opening statement. 

"You may call your first witness." 

"We'd like to start by questioning Qian Kun." The questioning went on for what felt like an hour to Y/N. The prosecution methodically called up every remaining member of WayV, one by one running through the facts again and again. She was sure the jury had to be sick of hearing the same story by now, but it was evident she was looking for a loophole. The man in her bluetooth agreed as much. What she didn't expect, though, was the first witness after that. 

"Next, I call Y/N (L/N) to the stand." Eyes widening, she heard the man in her ear whisper, objection.

"Objection!" 

"On what grounds?" The judge asked. 

"The tribunal has proper objection when the trier of fact may be confused or misled by a lawyer serving as both advocate and witness. The opposing party has proper objection where the combination of roles may prejudice that party's rights in the litigation. A witness is required to testify on the basis of personal knowledge, while an advocate is expected to explain and comment on evidence given by others. It may not be clear whether a statement by an advocate-witness should be taken as proof or as an analysis of the proof."

Basically, what she was saying was that, by using her as a witness, the lawyer would be confusing the jury on which parts of her arguments were testimony, and which were legal advocacy. It was a valid argument, and she had already gained the permission to act as an advocate by the tribunal, (a fancy word for the court). Therefore, it was well within their rights to object. 

"Objection sustained, for the time being." The judge agreed. "Let the record show that, should your testimony become integral to the case, the objection will be reevaluated." She nodded curtly in thanks. 

Annoyed, but not giving up, the lawyer continued to go through witnesses. The next ones were women Y/N had never seen before in her life. There were a total of four, all of varying ages. She found it difficult to remember any of their names. As far as she picked up, the first two had been sold into slavery and escaped their masters, one had been supposedly attempted upon, but not caught, and the final claimed to have been raped by YangYang of all people. 

"I would like to cross-examine the witnesses." Y/N stated as the trial continued. Speaking to the first girl, she kept her cool. She didn't have a choice in this moment but to follow every direction, take note of every answer and movement. She was starting to wish she had eaten. Still, now wasn't the time to think about this. There was a good- no, a near 100% chance at least one of these witnesses wouldn't hold up in court. She just had to figure out which one. 

The first and second were the most difficult. With similar, yet vague stories about being picked up in seedy areas, thrown into a van, and suddenly being awoken under the direction of a new master, it was nearly impossible to confirm or deny their honesty. While they were under oath, words were easily brushed a side. Hell, WayV was doing it right now. 

The fourth witness was where she started to get lucky. The man in her earbud told her to demand a medical examination in regards to the rape, and she almost immediately recanted her charges. This didn't look good for them, and the jury was swaying. The final, most pivotal testimony, though, was the third. This girl, around the age of 20 or so if she had to guess, had claimed to have almost been kidnapped at a WayV concert, but got away. Thankfully, she had someone on the outside able to pull her any details she wanted. This could be her ticket. 

"Miss, can you tell me exactly what happened on the night in question?" Sniffling with a fair amount of dramatics, she pushed her faded green hair away from her face. She needed to get her roots redone, her makeup was a walking disaster, and her outfit screamed koreaboo. Not only that, but her little show was basically terrible. 

"Yes... I went to go see WayV in Seoul because I am-" She paused, letting her eyelids flutter. "I was one of their biggest fans. At the end of the show, I went to go look around, because I wanted to experience it for as long as possible. I found the entrance to the back parking lot, and who did I find there but Xuxi himself!" The use of his name- especially one that wasn't his stage name- by this trash? It made her sick to her stomach. Still, she continued. 

"Go on?" 

"He pushed me up against the stadium wall and asked me if I wanted to get on the tour bus with him. Of course I said yes, but when we got on, I noticed like, five other girls! Of course, he didn't like any of them as much as me, but it was super fishy, so I tried to leave. He grabbed me and told me that I couldn't go, so I jerked my arm away and ran for dear life!" 

So much for being a great lawyer- the prosecution had really put this clown up here? As a serious witness? She became more confident as she saw the jury's faces fall and scrunch, evidently feeling the same way about this girls as she did. Now for the closer...

"Miss, I'll remind you that you're under oath. And in light of that, I'd like to put forth these facts: on the night in question, exactly twenty four minutes after the closing song, the entirety of WayV was escorted to the front foyer for a two-hour fansign, giving them a direct alibi for your timeframe backed by hundreds, if not thousands of witnesses." The judge's eyebrows raised as she waited for the witness' statement. When none came, the judge called the room's attention. 

"Lying under oath is a federal crime that could be met with a probation, fine, or a prison sentence up to five years. You will be taken for further investigation, and your rights will be read to you." Y/N suppressed a smile as the girl was escorted through the main floor of the courtroom. She knew she should be professional, leave it at that, but she couldn't help it. Just before the girl exited through the side door, Y/N yelled, 

"And keep Lucas's name out of your mouth!" With a slight murmur starting anew in the room, the judge slammed the gavel onto the desk. 

"Order in my court! Miss Y/N, may I remind you that you are at risk of being held in contempt?" 

"Yes, I apologize." She quickly muttered, already embarrassed by the action. As she said this, though, the other lawyer smirked, stepping up. 

"Your honor, we'd like to speak to one more person, if that's alright." 

"Of course, the trial may continue." Nodding the lady thanked her, spinning around to face the faces in the seats.

"The prosecution calls Wong Yuk-Hei to the stand."


	30. Verdict

He looked almost exactly the same as before he had been attacked. Stepping into the courtroom at the direction of the prosecution, his face was emotionless and his eyes never left the stand. He was wearing a dark suit, making it impossible to see his scars. His hair was neatly styled and his skin was clear and clean. How was he alive? According to the other members, he had been stabbed through the heart as well as all of his limbs, almost certainly bleeding out. He looked as if he had just been sitting alone in a room until the trial. 

It was only as he began to step forward that she realized the lawyer in her ear was trying to talk to her. 

"Stop staring at him, woman! You need to object!" 

"W-What?" She muttered. 

"OBJECT-" 

"Objection!" She shouted, not sure what they were doing, but following his lead. 

"On what grounds?" The judge asked.

A-as WayV's defendant, I am also in charge of Lucas. We have had no time to go over the details of the case and the plan for-" 

"With all due respect, your honor," The other lawyer sneered. "It sounds like she's trying to avoid having a witness testify before she's had a chance to get to them." 

"It's not like that!" 

"If that's the case, you should have no objections." The judge looked to her, raising their eyebrows expectantly. She had no choice- she revoked her objection and let the questioning commence. He stepped up to the stand, still not looking at her. The prosecution began asking relentless questions about their living situation. 

"Are you and Y/N close?" 

"...I'd say so? She's in the house a lot." 

"A lot.. what do you mean by that? Is she in residence?" He was starting to stumble. He didn't know what he was supposed to say, rambling about random times they had hung out. 

"So you agree that Y/N has been living with you for a considerable amount of time." 

"...Yes, that's accurate." 

"And you're involved?" 

"I'm not... I'm not sure I understand your question, I-" At this point, the lawyer was beginning to get fed up with his wandering, evasive answers, and it was clear the jury was becoming suspicious as well. 

"Are you or are you not in love with Y/N?" She practically yelled, setting her hand down firmly on the prosecution's table, staring at him. His mouth opened slightly, eyes wide as he glanced over to the group, to her. "Don't look at her! Look at me!" The lawyer demanded. "Answer the question!" Y/N's heart dropped as she realized this was it. He had no idea what they were trying to pull, had no way of figuring out their cover story. There wasn't a reason she could think of for him to guess that this was plausible. If she had to guess, he would think that it was a trap, and that answering yes would contradict an earlier statement. They were done for, and he didn't even know it. It was completely-

"Yes." He said, looking the lawyer in the eyes as he swallowed nervously. "I love her more than anything else in the world." Everyone's faces shifted as he said this, the courtroom falling into a deadly hush. Y/N was ecstatic- she wasn't sure how, but he had figured it out! The other lawyer, however, was furious. There was no way he got in contact with the rest of the group. How had he done it? Unless they had some micro signal, or... no, it was impossible. Y/N took her chance. 

"Your honor, this all seems irrelevant to the case. It's clear Lucas's account aligns with ours regarding our relationship, my friendship with Kun, the attack of his persons by my ex-boyfriend, and he was unconscious for everything after-" The lawyer's face dropped. She saw what Y/N was doing. By dropping those subtle clues as to the rest of the story, Y/N was making it a walk in the park for Lucas to figure out what was going on and adjust the remainder of his testimony. 

"Objection! She's colluding with the witness!" The lady screamed. 

"What grounds do you have for that accusation?" The judge asked, raising their eyebrows. 

"I- Didn't you just- she went and told him the- It's just that-" 

"Overruled, please don't disrupt the flow of the trial. If you would like to continue your interrogation, please do so." Grinding her teeth and shooting Y/N a death glare, she said, 

"No further questions." She knew they were guilty. Everything about their little setup screamed it, even the way they were participating in the trial. She knew that WayV was a human trafficking ring. But how to prove it? She could find no records, no one willing to give them up. The witnesses she had gathered had been practically useless. She was becoming less and less certain of her victory. 

"Well, we've done this a bit out of order, so Y/N has basically given her defense. Do you have anything to add in regards to refuting the witness testimonies?" She waited for the lawyer in her earpiece to confirm, then said, 

"Our bases are covered in our closing statements. We'd like to move on to evidence, if that's alright. As we're aware, the prosecution does intend to present material evidence against my clients." The other lawyer was still fuming as the judge asked her to step forward with the evidence. She muttered something, but no one could tell what it was. 

"Could you please speak up?" Clenching her fists, the other woman said louder, 

"It has come to our attention that the evidence may be detrimental to the case and we would like to motion to revoke our request for floor time in regards to-" 

"It's been registered and you put it forth as an intended point. Please present." The woman had expected as much. She couldn't just change the case at the last minute. Still, she had been grasping at straws. Pulling out a plastic evidence bag, she held it up. 

"These were found in the household during an invasion under search warrant. We believed that they may have belonged to a victim." It was a rather... private piece of women's clothing. 

"Where in the household were they recovered from?" 

"Hendery's bedroom." This caught their attention. One of many things could happen in this moment- they somehow explained how the bra had ended up in a different part of the house, or it turned out to really be that of a victim's. Raising her hand and coughing, Y/N tried to recover as she looked at it. 

"Your honor, that belongs to me." The judge looked between the two as if checking to see if the size matched. Y/N knew that it did, because it really was hers. It wasn't one of the ones that they'd provided her, either, it was the one she'd been wearing at the concert. The question was... how did Hendery even get it? She didn't have time to ponder that now, though, she had to figure out how to explain-

"With all due respect, your honor," Lucas cut in for her. What was his plan with this? Come up with some elaborate excuse to explain this, or accuse her of cheating? "Hendery's bed is, uh... nicer, if you get what I'm saying." 

"Ugh! That's disgusting!" Hendery shouted dramatically. "Are you serious?!" It was the first time he'd spoken since he was forced to give his testimony, and Y/N certainly wasn't expecting him to actively help in their little charade. 

"It's not my fault that you're out so often!" Lucas pretended to object, shrugging.

"You make me sick-" 

"Order in the court!" The judge was forced to demand again. "Does anyone have any further helpful statements in regards to this?" No one spoke up, thankfully allowing them to move on from that... enlightening piece of evidence. They hadn't actually done anything, so Y/N didn't know why she was so embarrassed. She still also didn't know why the article of clothing was in Hendery's room to begin with. 

"In that case, would the attorneys like to make their closing statements?" The prosecution spoke first. She gave some roundabout, wandering statement about looking at the real energy of the matter and not to let the one poor witness get in the way of looking at what really happened. Eventually, she came to a close, sitting down, looking much less smug than she had at the start. Y/N stood up to give her summary. 

"As you can see, fellow citizens, the members of WayV had nothing to do with these human trafficking cases, and it was likely that they were isolated coincidences at best. They have alibis set in stone and witness testimony to back their innocence. Why would such famous, powerful, well-liked young men jeopardize everything they have worked for just to gain a little more cash off the top? They are more than well off, and they have no motive. These accusations are the result of a misunderstanding blown out of proportion." 

"The jury is dismissed to discuss." As the members of the jury filed out into a side room, Y/N finally felt like she could breathe. Looking over at Kun, he gave her a proud smile, something she'd never seen on him before. It lifted her heart, making her a little less nervous. She didn't want to say anything, to ruin the charade they had put up, but she couldn't wait to get back home... Well, to the base. Was that her home, now? 

The jury came back out in only ten short minutes. The vote was unanimous. The judge spoke once the crowd silenced. “Members of the jury, have you reached a verdict?” The jury spokesman stood and said:

“Yes, your Honor, we have.”

“Members of the Jury, in the Case of WayV, what you say?” The Jury Spokesman cleared his throat before pronouncing,

“Your Honor, the members of this Jury find the defendants not guilty of the charges leveraged against them." The room broke out into a loud buzz, causing the judge to bang the gavel a few more times. For the third time that case, order was demanded. 

"In the cases of Qian Kun, Dong Si Cheng, Liu Yangyang, Xiao Dejun, Wong Yuk-Hei, Chittaphon Leechaiyapornkul, and Wong Kun-Hang, I find them Not Guilty. This court is adjourned." The bailiff directed all to rise as the judge left the stand, exiting the courtroom. Once they were gone, the prosecution glared angrily at Y/N's back, but she couldn't care less. Breathing out, tears coming to her eyes, she ran over to Lucas, wrapping her arms around him as he put his chin on top of her head. It was over.


	31. Return

"We're meeting in the conference room in twenty minutes." Kun instructed as they walked in the door. "Everybody get changed and maybe grab something to eat. We've won a great victory, but there's a lot to discuss. For now, though, just be proud. I'll see you in a few minutes." WinWin and YangYang started towards their rooms together, Ten following Kun in whatever direction he was going. Xiaojun was obviously still hospitalized, and she didn't care to know what Hendery was going to go do. She awkwardly followed Lucas into the elevator as he hit the floor to the basement. Coughing, he looked over at her. 

"So, uh... how are you?" 

"You jerk!" She yelled, hitting him lightly on the arm. "How could you not tell us you were alive?" 

"I'm sorry!" He said, putting his hands up defensively. "It's just that-" 

"No excuses! I was worried sick about you! Everyone kept saying you were dead, I couldn't even believe it! I knew you wouldn't leave us like that, you couldn't! But to do that to everyone else, I..." As she chewed him out, she noticed a big, dumb smile forming across his face. She trailed off, looking at him, confused. 

"You were worried about me?" Pushing him again, she felt her face flushed, hoping he couldn't see it. 

"Shut up! You know what I meant!" He started laughing, shoving her back. 

"Yeah, you meant you were worried about me!" She couldn't help but laugh at how happy he was as the elevator doors opened, allowing them to step off into- a broom closet. 

"Oh." She said, catching her breath. "I, uh, I forgot about that. Kun had us board up the basement for the search warrant." 

"Huh." He made a noise passively. "So, uh... now what?" 

"I brought some of your stuff up to my room, we could just go there." He agreed as they re-boarded the elevator, riding up to the bedrooms. No one was in the halls, so there was no strangeness as he walked in, noting his boxes almost immediately. He knelt down, digging through to grab a change of clothes. 

"So... that was some trial." He said as he pulled out a shirt, continuing to rummage for something else. 

"Some trial?" She asked incredulously. "You just showed up out of nowhere! I mean, how did you even survive?" He tilted his head. 

"Survive? It was just some cuts." 

"You didn't see the stab wounds?" She asked. She supposed it had happened while he was asleep, but still, stabbed through the heart? It was impossible. Confused, he pulled off his shirt, revealing the skin beneath. While he was still just as beautiful as he had been on stage prior to his injury, he was now covered in sickly familiar gashes and stitches. Most of them had been redone by the hospital, so they were cleaner, but it still wasn't a pleasant sight. Walking forward, she brushed the tip of her finger over a short, sealed hole on the left side of his body. Her left, meaning... his right.

"He..." She breathed out in relief. "He got the wrong side." Lucas looked down at himself awkwardly, quickly moving to put the other shirt on. He was clearly self-conscious in regards to the scars. He thought they were ugly, and he didn't want her to have to look at them. 

"So I know you tried to fill me in mid-trial," He joked, "But what was the story we were going for?" 

"Oh, the story was that we started dating and my crazy ex-boyfriend came to try and kill you, and all those other people, and-" 

"Other people?" She had forgotten, he hadn't been aware of over half of the proceedings. Laughing breathily, she decided to switch gears. 

"You know what? Kun will fill us in at the briefing, no sense wearing ourselves out now." She also didn't want to relive Hendery's attempt on her life. "There's still one thing I can't figure out, though." 

"Hmm? What's that?" He asked as he pulled out a pair of jeans from the box. 

"How did you manage to figure it out?" He went silent for a moment, before looking over. 

"What do you mean, figure it out?" 

"You know, the story. That whole thing kind of hinged around us pretending to be dating. I was almost positive that once she started yelling at you, all do you love her and all that agressiveness, that you would freak out and say no. I mean, you had no reason to know what was going on, you literally saved the case and you didn't even know it!" 

"O-oh." He said, passively. 

"So?" 

"So what?" Exasperated, she sighed. 

"How did you figure it out, silly, it was like a miracle!" 

"I, uh..." He coughed, clearing his throat and laughing awkwardly. His eyes met the ground, hands tight around the fabric he was holding. "I panicked and just, uh... told the truth?" Her breath hitched. Told the truth? What was he saying? That was ridiculous, there was no way. 

"You... you love me?" He tried to laugh again, although it was getting more and more forced. 

"I said that, didn't I..." Standing up uncomfortably straight. "Well, anyway, who cares? We made it through the trial, we're free men! All thanks to you! We should definitely-" 

"Did you mean it?" She asked as he tried to walk by her, blocking his path. "Do you love me?" He was finally forced to meet her expectant eyes, looking at him with a terrifying amount of intent and demanding.

"I..." He breathed through his nose. "I mean what I said. More than anything else in the world." She saw her eyes dart around, trying to process, so he tried to recover it in his strange, humorous way. "I was gonna tell you! I swear! I just didn't get the chance, and I know it's stupid, and honestly it's my bad for even starting anything in the first place, and I know that-" 

"I love you, too." She cut him off, surprising herself. He fell silent as she said this, looking at her eyes incredulously. Without another word, he leaned forward and kissed her, holding her tightly as she reciprocated. She had been kidnapped, dragged here, forced through hell and back, and she couldn't feel any safer than where she was in that moment. Stuck in her blue dress, dirtied by the trial and its past, and him in his dress pants and T-Shirt, it couldn't have been more perfect in her mind. 

Pulling away slowly, Lucas let his hands fall and his eyes slowly open. She watched as that trademark, stupid smile appeared on his face again, lighting up the room with a little bit more happiness. 

"We should go to the conference room." He said finally, unable to force the corners of his lips down. 

"Yeah." She agreed as she left the room, looking back to watch him walk into the bathroom, presumably to change his pants. As she walked to the meeting place, even in all of her discomfort, she felt a little tiny spring in each of her steps.


	32. Hostility

"Alright, to start off, we need to go over everything that's happened, without exception." Kun stated. It seemed that everybody had changed clothing except for Y/N, and the color had even begun returning to Hendery's skin. She assumed the he'd eaten at some point, already boding well for his mental health. Kun continued on, several papers in front of him. 

"To start with, we obviously owe Y/N a massive bout of thanks. We would have been unable to get ahold of a suitable lawyer without her. And of course, we're lucky she didn't chose to turn us in." Great, that made it a bit awkward. Thankfully, everyone breezed by it. "Of course, we're under heavy watch, now. We've by some miracle managed to avoid a public scandal, but the company will be up our asses now. The tour is continually postponed as we wait to hear back from Xiaojun's doctors. Even if they somehow manage to find a way to perfectly heal all of his injuries, it could take many, many months. I wouldn't be surprised if they stage another issue or a contract disagreement to remove him from the group." 

This caused a lot of tension. It felt as though all eyes were on Hendery, who was saying nothing. Everyone knew it was his fault, and he still had failed to defend himself. Honestly, Y/N didn't even know why they were letting him grace the same table as them. Surely he hadn't done something like this before, right? 

"Of course, being under surveillance could be extremely detrimental to our business. In light of that, we need to slightly adjust our means of operation. Y/N, you'll be hands-on from now going forward." This caused the room to burst into objection. 

"Are you kidding?" WinWin asked. "She knows nothing about operations!"

"She'll turn us in. Or get herself caught." Hendery growled in agreement. 

"You shouldn't put something like that on her!" Ten covered the more caring side of the argument. "You said it yourself, we were lucky she helped this much! You can't just expect her to start kidnapping women!" Everyone seemed to have their own objection to it, Kun raising his hands. 

"These things are easily taught. We'll be active behind the scenes, but with no tour and such an audience, it'll be more than difficult to do things as we used to. As for the betrayal..." He looked to her. "I don't suppose there'll be any issue?" She swallowed hard, unsure if what she was about to say was the right choice. 

"I... I can't do it, Kun." He diverted his eyes to the paper, refusing to meet hers once again. 

"And why might that be?" 

"I just... It's wrong. I can't." Looking to Ten, he snarled, 

"Well, I've got bad news for you, sweetheart. You let us out, which means we're now free to do what we want. If you understand what that means. And trust me, there will be no witnesses to that little tangent, considering there'd be no trial." Was... was that a threat? Kun was threatening her? She had nearly forgotten in all they had been through that he was a businessman. He had only been overly kind to her because it was to his benefit. 

Noting the threat and Y/N's adverse reaction, Lucas sat forward, ready to say something, but she shot him a warning gaze. Reluctantly, he stood down, waiting patiently to see what Kun would do next. Setting his papers in order, he continued as if nothing had happened, still revoking his eye contact with her. 

"Alright. Now on the issue of filling Lazarus here in." He read through the documents. "No need to spend hours on it. Long story short, Hendery attacked you, Xiaojun and Y/N stitched your wounds, and he ran off, killing 7 girls every few days in correlation to our stage names. He stole half a million dollars, ran off, and then returned, convincing us that it was someone else that had committed the acts." Lucas's brow furrowed. 

"I don't think that's actually what-" 

"Let me finish." Kun demanding, putting her even more out of ease. What was wrong with him? "We believed in what he said, and he and Y/N left to go find the real culprit. In doing some more research, YangYang and WinWin discovered that our hypothesis had been correct the first time, but when going to retrieve Xiaojun, we found him with both of his arms and legs broken, and you presumably dead. At this point, we were arrested. Y/N, would you care to enlighten us on your half of the incident?" 

"M-my half?" 

"I'd prefer you tell us what happened as opposed to Hendery, for now, at least." Swallowing, she nodded. She'd rather have her point of view acknowledged, even if it meant feeling a little strange. 

"Uh, well, once I was in the car with Hendery, we went to this strange section of the woods, and he let me out of the car. We were standing in the headlights, and he told me that he'd killed Lucas and Xiaojun, and that I was next. He threatened me with a knife, and then suddenly the police showed up... And uh, that was about it I th-" 

"You did what?!" Lucas demanded, shouting as he slammed his hands down on the table, standing. Hendery stood to defend himself, but there was a clear four inch height difference between the two. "I was willing to forgive you guys for attacking me, but you have the nerve to try and lay a hand on Y/N? What kind of psychopath are you?" 

"You had it coming." He spat. 

"Oh, you little-" Lucas shoved his chair back in under the desk, moving around to presumably beat the shit out of Hendery. The man backed up as he came for him, but he was caught by the arm by Kun. Lucas tried to fight through, and it took nearly everyone's effort in the room to push him back against the wall. "Let me go!" He demanded, jerking his body to try and writhe free. 

"We're going to talk about this like fucking adults." Kun hissed as he tried to calm Lucas down. "Y/N is fine. She's fine, look-" He only let go when Lucas stopped fighting. He indicated for YangYang and Ten to do the same, WinWin watching curiously from the sidelines. Eyes darting around, searching for hers, he whispered harshly. 

"Where is she? Where's Y/N?" Breathing in, he added, "And... where is Hendery?"


	33. Sacrifice

Y/N was struggling to breathe through the cloth in her mouth as she struggled against her bindings, rolling around on the itchy carpeting of the hatchback of the sedan. She could just barely hear the deep voice humming over the rumble of the road beneath her. It was a sickeningly familiar tune, sung by an even more nausea-inducing, perfect voice.

"I can hear it calling- from where you are, loving the way you wanna talk-" Pausing for a moment, he laughed. "That's one of my favorites. The choreography is pretty nice." Another moment of silence. "I know you can hear me, honey. I heard you wake up. Oh, that's right, I forgot you can't respond." He snickered. "Don't worry, we'll be there in a few minutes, I promise." 

The group hadn't notice Hendery pull her out of the room as they were too busy holding down Lucas. His struggling was enough cover for hers. She normally would have been able to defend herself, at least a little, but he had been smart. Wrapping the cloth around her mouth and jerking her back, he had pulled her out of the room easily, overtaking her in her surprise. Now, she had no idea where she was going, and no one to help her. 

True to his word, the car slowed to a halt soon enough. She waited in fear as she heard the driver's side door open and shut with a clicking bang, anticipating the opening of the back. When it did, the cool air that covered her body was strangely refreshing. Being tied up in the back of a truck wasn't the most comfortable. Leaning over with a gentle hand, he pulled the restraints on her ankles loose, followed by the one over her mouth. 

"You dick." She spat as he did so, causing him a round of amusement. 

"Sorry, sweetheart, just precautions. You understand why I can't untie your hands." Slipping a hand under her shoulder, he helped her sit up in the back of the car, offering her room to slide down and walk normally. "Come on, we don't have all day." When she still didn't move, he made a disapproving noise, grabbing her by the elbow and ripping her out of the vehicle. She thought about just falling to the ground and being difficult, but she wasn't sure exactly what he would do to her if she chose to be uncooperative. Unwillingly, she followed his slightly rough guidance forward. 

The building they had arrived at looked somewhat like a log cabin. If she hadn't been tied up, it would have almost looked like a nice vacation spot. She knew better. Now, it was towering over her, threatening her like a super villain's lair. There was no way anything good would come of this. 

Unlocking the door, he led her inside, turning on lights as he went. It was admittedly nice, with a beautiful rustic-modern color palette and well-kept furniture. Bringing her through the kitchen and sitting room, he led her to the master bedroom. Unlike a normal bedroom, though, this one had a prominent, obtrusive cage on the left side, iron bars and all. It looked eerily similar to the ones in the basement of their facility. Noting the expression on her face, he moved to unlock it, saying, 

"Who do you think designed the ones we have? Someone had to pick a style. I'd like to think these are the most efficient and productive. They're intimidating, as well." He let the door swing open as he shoved her in, letting her fall to her knees as he shut it behind her, but did not lock it. 

"I didn't realize you were a creep in your spare time, too." She said saltily, trying to arrange her dress more modestly without the use of her arms. He seemed taken aback, feigning offense by putting a hand to his chest. 

"I wouldn't call it being a creep. I just bring my favorites here." 

"Favorites? You hate me." 

"Hmm... perhaps favorites wasn't the right term. Try... most interesting?" Leaning forward on his hand as he sat down on the bed, he continued, "Although, you are one of my favorites. I did hate you at first, but that changed very quickly. I could have had you easily, if I'd been quick enough. The fans are always easy, they have a deep-set love for us already. To transfer that from love for idols to love for the human themself is surprisingly simple. But he got in the way." 

"He...?" 

"See, Lucas and I were actually fairly close. I know you wouldn't believe me if I said it, but it's true. He came to me to tell me." 

"Tell you what?" 

"That he was in love with you, of course." She breathed in sharply. He had known for that long? And Lucas had known for all that time as well? How had she been so oblivious? If she wasn't face to face with the craziest person on the face of the Earth in that moment, she may have smiled. Right now, though, it was incredibly threatening. 

"He planned to tell you. He actually wanted to say it that night, he was walking up the stairs to find your bedroom and let you know. I couldn't let that happen. I panicked." Pulling a knife out of his waistband, he held it to his face thoughtfully. "And so we ended up like we did. But you." He pointed it. 

"You still just wouldn't let him go. I thought if he were all scratched up like that you'd at least back away, make him feel unwanted, and he'd give up. But you just had to go and help save his life. I knew he'd wake up more in love with you than ever, especially once he learned you'd saved his life. It would prove to him that you were capable of caring, even for a criminal like him. It makes me sick." He snarled. 

"I got angry. I tried to warn against messing with me, I planned to retrieve you. Unfortunately, my preparations were put on a bit of a time crunch once Ten found me. Still, it all worked out. I was going to kill Lucas, get you into my car, and take you with me. Xiaojun just had to step in though. I didn't want to kill anyone, but Lucas was a necessary casualty. A sacrifice for the greater good. Xiaojun wanted to fight me though.

Poor thing, he's not really one for violence. He does well enough handling little girls, but I'm a completely different story. he didn't stand a chance. I didn't expect either of them to survive, though, so I'll give them that. They're strong in that regard."

"Why?" She asked, trying to keep tears from forming at her eyes. "Why do you care so much if Lucas loves me?" He stared for a moment, then laughed out loud. It started out quietly, but soon grew into a full on fit, filling the room with the unsettling sound. 

"Are you that dense?" Putting a hand to his head, still jerking occasionally, he said, "Because I'm in love with you, Y/N. But now that Lucas has fucked everything up for me and confessed to you, you'll always love him. You'll never... you'll never change. At first I was going to keep you here until you came to your senses, but..." Holding the knife with an iron grip, he looked down, eyes wide in a creepy stare. 

"I'm starting to realize that it's a lost cause. There's only one way we'll be together, Y/N, and that's in a different life." Moving to open the cage, she backed up against the wall as far as she could go, staring up in terror. "If I can't have you, he can't either." He raised the knife above his head, allowing her the tiny comfort of shutting her eyes. She didn't want to say it. 

Suddenly, with a loud crash, she was jerked from her paralyzed state, watching as men poured through the door. Holding a gun up, pointed directly at Hendery's head, she heard the most wonderful, beautiful, amazing voice in the world as he said, 

"Drop the knife, Hendery." He had come to save her. Lucas and the others were here.


	34. Blood of the Lamb

"Drop the knife, Hendery." Lucas and Ten were both at the front of the party, each holding a gun pointed at Hendery's head. He chuckled lightly as he put his hands up, keeping the blade in his hand. Looking at him, he smiled slightly. 

"You wouldn't kill me." 

"Try me." 

"We've been friends for ages. You even told me about your little crush on Y/N, hmm?" It was obvious that this was new information to a good portion of the group, but no one said anything as the standoff played out.

"Who you willingly chose to threaten and kidnap. You know how I feel about her, and how I'd feel if anything happened. So why do this?" 

"It's precisely because you feel that way that I have to do this." Hendery amended his accusations as he stepped forward, causing Lucas to readjust his firearm. "Poor little Lucas, so oppressed and lonely in the world. You wanted your Romeo and Juliette, your perfect love story, how sweet. Well, lucky for you, I'll make sure this ends up like the play." Spinning to face Y/N again, he knelt down. 

"Back up!" Lucas demanded. Smiling, Hendery whispered under his breath, just quiet enough that only she could hear. 

"I'll see you soon, darling." With a quick motion of his hand, he held the knife up to her throat, causing her to scream. With the violently loud shot of a pistol, she watched, eyes trembling, as the light faded from his eyes and his body crumpled to the ground in front of her, blood staining the carpet. 

"Oh my God!" She screamed, crying, hands to her face as she stared in horror. Sighing, Kun looked at the body. 

"What a mess this has become. I suppose the group is pretty much over, we're down to five members." 

"Oh, it's not over yet." Lucas snarled, turning his weapon to face another. Moving out of the way, Ten looked to try and see what was going on. He had his gun now pointed at WinWin. 

"I- What are you doing, man?" WinWin laughed as he looked awkwardly in both directions, looking for support.

"I don't suppose any of them know, do they?" 

"I don't know what you're talking about." WinWin put his hands up defensively. "Are you sure you're not just-" 

"You were in the stairwell that day with Hendery!" He accused, harshly shoving the barrel of the gun directly into the man's chest, causing him to take a step back. He continued advancing on him as he spoke. "You had a knife too, I know you helped him. I'll bet you're the one that gave him access to the money. Not only that, but while everyone else was trying to hold me back, you weren't doing shit. I'll bet you helped this piece of shit kidnap her too, didn't you?" 

"I- I didn't- I'm not-" He looked between all of their eyes, practically begging for someone to jump in and save him, but they were all waiting intently for his response. Stuttering to find the words, he finally conceded. "Fine, okay! It wasn't like that, though! I was just making what I thought was the right investment! I made the wrong choice in letting Y/N stay! Hendery's intention was to make her fall in love with him, but I knew if I went along with what he was saying, she'd end up dead sooner or later! She's messing with all of your heads and she didn't even know it! You can't blame me for that, I was just trying to-" As he was speaking, Ten shouted above the ramblings. 

"Wait, no-!" Before anyone could even comprehend what was going on, another shot rang out, causing WinWin's shoulder to jerk backwards, blood spurting from the new hole in his shirt, kneeling to the ground, he held it with one hand, face displaying the searing pain. YangYang, now holding Ten's gun, pushed forward through the others to kick him in the chest, sending him sprawling to the ground. 

"You asshole! You lied to me? To all of us? Why help me figure out what was going on with Hendery, then? Why let him try and kill Xiaojun, kill Lucas? How could you do that to me?!" 

"Don't flatter yourself." He coughed, blood now staining a second spot on the carpeting of the master bedroom. "By helping you, I had the highest chance of getting Y/N killed. I couldn't give a shit how you feel." 

"Shut up!" 

"It's not my fault you feel so inadequate. Maybe if you were good for something I would have sided with you, but Hendery had potential. That was all there was to it." 

"I said shut up!" 

"You'll never be anything like that. Even as a psychopathic, possessive killer of a nutcase, he still had the prowess and the skill to-" 

"I told you to shut the fuck up!" YangYang screamed, pointing the gun at him again, this time shooting with no hesitation. WinWin was silent, now. Pulling him back, Ten took the gun while he was distracted, sinking to the ground and crying next to WinWin's body, muttering over and over, "I thought we were friends... I thought..." Lucas took the opportunity to walk back into the cage, pulling Y/N up off the wet carpet and pulling her into his arms. 

"It's all over now, hun, it's all over." She found herself crying into his shoulder as he pet her head softly, trying to direct her away from the sight of either dead body. Ten was trying to talk to YangYang as Kun watched in total awe. They would need to deal with this at some point, but... now was not that time. 

They returned to the base with both bodies in the car. No matter what the circumstances, they had a duty to bury their colleagues, whether they died as friends or not. They received no special funeral, no church bells or audience. It was ironic how with so many adoring fans, they were lowered into their graves with a crowd of five. Kun agreed to be the one to make up a story and notify the company. He was completely confident that it would stay under wraps. If he was lucky, the living members would be given new careers. Ten was still part of SuperM as well, so he would be fine. The company had been planning on removing WinWin from 127 anyway, so that wouldn't be an issue either. He was certain everything would settle down, and then they could carry on as planned. 

Lucas was sitting on her bed as she sniffled, still completely shaken up by the day's events. She had gone from so happy to so sad in the course of 12 hours that she didn't even know how to process it. Not only that, but now she would be forced into working for Kun under threat of death. At least she'd have Lucas by her side while she did it. 

"Hey..." He started, voice already calming her down as she tried to quiet her miserable sound effects. 

"Yeah?" 

"How would you feel about leaving?" 

"The base?" He shook his head. 

"The base, the town, the fucking country, I don't care. I can't do this anymore. I didn't want to before, but now, with you here, I'm certain. I want to take you far, far away from here and never come back. I have the money, we could just... go away. No one needs to know where, Kun won't bother coming after us. If he does, I'll handle it." She was quiet for a moment. 

"You mean it?" Holding her gently by her upper arms, he nodded. 

"Of course I mean it. I love you so much, I just want you to be safe." Moving to kiss her forehead softly, she lifted her chin and briefly pressed her lips to his. "Grab anything you need. We're out of here." 

"R-right now?" She asked incredulously. 

"I don't see why not." She jumped up off the bed, that little bit of joy already returning to her. 

"I'll be ready in five minutes!" Smiling, he stood as well. 

"Good, I just have one little thing to take care of. I'll meet you at the car?" She nodded excitedly as he left her bedroom, shutting the door behind him. Walking the hallway to the elevator, he thought he'd feel sentimental, but in truth, he was more than happy to leave this shitshow behind. Pressing the button to the top floor, he rode it up calmly. 

Walking into Kun's office, he pulled something off the top of the desk and entered his bedroom quietly. The man was asleep, no doubt tired from the troubles of the day. despite his facade, Lucas knew he was under so much stress. It wasn't easy, doing what Kun did, and he did genuinely care for his men. It was a shame it had come to this. 

Cocking the gun that was now in his hand, Lucas looked at him, face relaxed in the soft light. 

"I'm sorry, Kun, I really am. But I need to be happy."

[The End]

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the final chapter of this work. (It's actually a two-part story as-is on Quotev, Wattpad, and Tumblr, but I consolidated it here). I'm currently active on those platforms, although each harbors slightly different stories at the moment. (For instance, all three, not including AO3, have an EXO horror story, while just the former two have a fluffy SuperM story). If you have any requests, I'd be happy to take them. Thank you for reading!


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